Textbook authors' OpenAI suit paused until Times case rules
Judge Sidney Stein stayed the professors' case on Sept. 16 pending summary judgment rulings in the grouped New York Times lawsuit
A Boston College finance professor, Alan Marcus, is one of six current and former professors suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, according to the outlet. The proposed class-action complaint, filed Aug. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges the companies downloaded the professors' textbooks from pirate site Library Genesis and used them to train ChatGPT and other large language models, without authorization.
The complaint centers on two datasets, Books1 and Books2, which the professors say OpenAI used for training; they estimate Books2 alone holds more than 100,000 books and that textbooks make up about a quarter of all works copied. The suit was grouped in August with other copyright cases against the companies, including the New York Times's 2023 lawsuit, for pretrial proceedings.
On Sept. 16, Judge Sidney Stein stayed the professors' lawsuit, over their objections, until he rules on cross motions for summary judgment filed in early September in the Times case. The Department of Justice filed a brief on Sept. 1 supporting OpenAI, arguing that training AI models on copyrighted writing is fair use and that restricting AI development would threaten national security. OpenAI and Microsoft have not responded to the textbook authors' allegations, according to court filings.
Six professors, including Boston College's Alan Marcus, built a real case: pirated textbooks, named datasets, a quarter of the copied works allegedly textbooks. And now it sits on hold while someone else's case gets decided first. If you're an author watching this space, that's the lesson this week — your claim can be solid and still go nowhere fast once it's folded into a bigger fight. The DOJ weighing in for OpenAI on fair use tells you this isn't just a publishing dispute anymore; it's a policy fight with national security dressed on top.
From the Coral Wire edition of Mon, Oct 26 2026 · Coral Index 22/100 (Storm warning)