WME Joins the Fight Against OpenAI With a Brief for Licensed AI Use
Summary
The agency says it does not want AI trained on creative work stopped, only paid for, and cites more than two dozen licensing deals as proof a market exists.
"WME has filed an amicus brief in the consolidated copyright case brought by The New York Times and others against OpenAI, becoming the first major Hollywood agency to enter the dispute, Deadline reported Monday. The 18-page brief, dated Oct. 30 and signed by WME Group legal chief Courtney Braun with outside firm Jayaram PLLC, argues that ""WME's position is therefore not that AI use of creative materials should be stopped, but that it should be licensed.""
The brief cites more than two dozen AI licensing agreements struck between mid-2023 and mid-2024, including News Corp's reported five-year, $250 million deal with OpenAI, as evidence that a licensing market already exists. WME says it wants to preserve ""the legal framework that lets creators decide whether, and on what terms"" their work is used.
The filing follows a joint brief from SAG-AFTRA, the American Federation of Musicians and the Writers Guilds East and West on Oct. 29. The U.S. Justice Department filed in support of OpenAI in September, arguing that training large language models on copyrighted text should not be found to infringe."
