Gracenote, a metadata and content recognition service provider operating under Nielsen, has initiated legal proceedings against OpenAI in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The company alleges that OpenAI engaged in large-scale data capture—a practice often referred to as "mass scraping" (a term retained here due to its specific legal connotations in this context)—and unauthorized utilization of Gracenote's extensive media metadata database and its unique data association framework. This unauthorized use was purportedly carried out to train large language models for commercial products, including ChatGPT, without obtaining proper authorization or providing compensation, thereby constituting a severe infringement of copyright and posing a threat to Gracenote's core business operations.

Gracenote asserts that its database encompasses comprehensive program descriptions, detailed video feature descriptions, unique content identifiers, and intricate relationship graphs, all of which have been duly registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. The unauthorized scraping of data by OpenAI has led to instances where the output content generated by ChatGPT bears a striking resemblance, or is even identical, to the program descriptions contained within Gracenote's database. Consequently, Gracenote is seeking compensation from OpenAI for the losses incurred and is pursuing statutory damages as part of its legal remedies.