An Ontario appeals court ruled Friday that OpenAI must answer its copyright lawsuit in Canada1. Five Canadian news organizations sued the company two years ago4. The panel also ordered OpenAI to pay the publishers CA$100,000 in legal costs2.
OpenAI wanted the fight moved to an American court. The panel kept the case in Ontario1. Ontario, it ruled, has "a real and substantial connection to the alleged breaches"2.
OpenAI's Escape Route Closes
Jurisdiction is a simple question with a big effect: which country's courts get to hear a case. The publishers sued in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, where the case is now called Toronto Star Newspapers v. OpenAI3. The fight over that question came before any judge touched the copyright claim itself.
The publishers accuse OpenAI of three things3. They say it broke Canadian copyright law, broke its own website terms, and kept the profit from their work.
Ten OpenAI entities faced the suit at first. Six remain defendants, among them OpenAI Inc. and OpenAI Global LLC. A judge already dropped four more, including OpenAI's startup fund, whose ties to Canada fell short.
A Judge Dropped 4 of 10 OpenAI Entities, Kept 6 in the Case
OpenAI entities the publishers named as defendants, by whether a Canadian court kept them, November 2025
Each cube is one OpenAI entity the publishers sued; magenta cubes stayed in the case, gray cubes are entities a judge dropped for weak ties to Canada.
Source: Richards Buell Sutton LLP [3]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Stayed in the case | 6 |
| Dropped from the case | 4 |
| Whole | 10 |
Justice B.W. Miller wrote the appeals panel's decision2. "Ontario has a real and substantial connection to the alleged breaches," Miller wrote. The panel said OpenAI's filings fell short of showing a real conflict with American law.
The fight has run since Nov. 29, 20245. A Superior Court judge first sided with the publishers on Nov. 7, 20258. OpenAI appealed, and lost again on Nov. 13, 20261.
OpenAI's Jurisdiction Fight Lasted 714 Days Before It Lost
Dated steps in the Canadian news publishers' copyright suit against OpenAI, 2024 to 2026
Each pin marks one dated step the courts have already finished in the publishers' fight to be heard in Canada.
The timeline covers jurisdiction only; the copyright claim itself still awaits a trial date.
Sources: BNN Bloomberg [1]; Vancouver Is Awesome [5]; CBC News [8]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Nov. 29, 2024 | Publishers file suit |
| Nov. 7, 2025 | Superior Court backs Ontario |
| Nov. 13, 2026 | Court of Appeal rejects OpenAI |
Why OpenAI Wanted Out
OpenAI argued the case belonged in American courts, because the training and the crawling happened outside Ontario8. The panel rejected that argument.
The company also defends the way it trains ChatGPT on the merits. Its models learn from data that is "grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation," the company told CBC4. OpenAI says it already works with publishers. "We collaborate closely with news publishers, including in the display, attribution and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and offer them easy ways to opt out should they so desire," the company said.
What the Publishers Say They Are Owed
Paul Deegan runs News Media Canada, the trade group behind the suit5. He said OpenAI takes journalism and skips the payment. "These artificial intelligence companies cannibalize proprietary content and are free-riding on the backs of news publishers who invest real money to employ real journalists who produce real stories for real people," Deegan said.
Torstar's chief executive, Neil Oliver, wrote to staff the day the publishers filed the suit7. "While we embrace the opportunities that technological innovation can bring, all participants must follow the law, and any use of our intellectual property must be on fair terms," Oliver wrote.
The five publishers say they have published 10.65 million works since 20156. They want CA$20,000 for every work OpenAI scraped and skipped paying for. AFP called the exposure potentially worth billions7.
The Real Fight Is Still Ahead
Friday's ruling settled only where the case gets heard. Whether training ChatGPT on news breaks Canadian copyright law waits for a later court1. Judge Jessica Kimmel made that same point a year ago, when she first let the case proceed8. "The fact that similar claims may arise and be pursued in two different jurisdictions that may have different laws is not a reason to block the claims in one jurisdiction from proceeding," Kimmel wrote.
Canada's copyright law carries an exception for research, but the exception stops at a product. Richard Lachman teaches media and technology at Toronto Metropolitan University8. He said the companies compare their scraping to a person reading the news. "The argument of the companies is, 'We're essentially reading the news that was on a public website. That's not illegal. A human can read the news,'" Lachman said.
Gaspard Petit is a Quebec lawyer who studies AI law8. He said the research exception has a limit. "There's a category for research, so you can do your own [artificial intelligence] model, do your own research, but then if you start building a business around it, you're out of that exception," Petit said.
The same four publishers filed a separate suit against Anthropic earlier this year1. A different group sued the Canadian AI company Cohere over the same kind of scraping. That group includes the Toronto Star, Condé Nast and McClatchy.
Canada's federal government has left the underlying question to the courts for now. A House of Commons heritage committee heard the same complaint from musicians, publishers and film unions1. It asked Ottawa to force AI companies to disclose what they use. The government is still consulting on the question, with its findings still pending.
What to Do
Canadian newsrooms now have a venue, a per-article price, and a court that says the fight belongs at home. A newsroom unsure whether OpenAI scraped its own archive should ask for the same kind of count. Torstar and the Canadian Press built one before they ever filed. That count, work by work since 2015, is what turned a grievance into a case a court agreed to hear.
By the Numbers
- CA$100,000: the legal costs the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered OpenAI to pay the five publishers2.
- Six: OpenAI entities still named as defendants, after a judge dropped four others3.
- 10.65 million: works the five publishers say they have published since 20156.
- CA$20,000: statutory damages the publishers want for each work OpenAI scraped6.
- Nov. 29, 2024: the day the publishers filed suit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice5.
- Two: other Canadian AI copyright suits the same publishers have joined, against Anthropic and against Cohere1.
What to Watch
Watch for a trial date on the actual copyright claim, since Friday's ruling cleared only the venue fight. A licensing offer from OpenAI, in place of a defense at trial, would be the surer sign of where this heads. The same publishers filed suits against Anthropic and Cohere too. Either ruling could shape how a Canadian court reads this one.
Sources
- The Canadian Press, "Court allows news publishers' copyright lawsuit against OpenAI to go ahead," BNN Bloomberg, Nov. 13, 2026, https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/artificial-intelligence/2026/11/13/court-allows-news-publishers-copyright-lawsuit-against-openai-to-go-ahead/
- Connie Thiessen, "Ontario Court Rejects OpenAI Appeal in Canadian Media Lawsuit," Broadcast Dialogue, Nov. 13, 2026, https://broadcastdialogue.com/ontario-court-rejects-openai-appeal-in-canadian-media-lawsuit/
- Douglas Cottier and Heather McCann, "Ontario Court Confirms Jurisdiction in OpenAI Copyright Dispute," Richards Buell Sutton LLP, April 17, 2026, https://www.rbs.ca/publications/ontario-court-confirms-jurisdiction-in-openai-copyright-dispute/
- Anis Heydari, "Media outlets, including CBC, sue ChatGPT creator," CBC News, Nov. 30, 2024, https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.7396940
- Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press, "Canadian news publishers suing ChatGPT developer OpenAI," Vancouver Is Awesome, Nov. 29, 2024, https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/national-business/canadian-news-publishers-suing-chatgpt-developer-openai-9882926
- Alex Riehl, "Major Canadian news orgs sue OpenAI for copyright infringement," BetaKit, Nov. 29, 2024, https://betakit.com/major-canadian-news-orgs-sue-openai-for-copyright-infringement/
- AFP, "Major Canadian media sue OpenAI in case potentially worth billions," Gulf News, Nov. 30, 2024, https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/major-canadian-media-sue-openai-in-case-potentially-worth-billions-1.1732941412823
- Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press, "Lawsuit by Canadian news publishers against OpenAI gets green light to proceed in Ontario," CBC News, Nov. 27, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/openai-new-publishers-lawsuit-ontario-9.6995520
