Who Won The Chats Case Between OpenAI And The New York Times?
A United States federal court has ruled in favor of OpenAI by lifting the previous order that required the company to indefinitely preserve its chat logs. This decision was made on Mon, Oct 9, 2025, by Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang in the Southern…
A United States federal court has ruled in favor of OpenAI by lifting the previous order that required the company to indefinitely preserve its chat logs. This decision was made on Mon, Oct 9, 2025, by Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang in the Southern District of New York, concluding a significant aspect of the copyright lawsuit filed by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft.
The court's order, titled "Stipulation and Order to Terminate OpenAI’s Ongoing Obligations Under the Preservation Order at ECF 33," specifies that OpenAI's obligation to retain all output log data ended on Sep 26, 2025. As a result, OpenAI can delete most chat logs generated through ChatGPT, excluding data preserved prior to the mentioned date. However, any logs associated with users from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the UK are exempt from the preservation requirement.
This decision was the outcome of a joint motion by both parties, marking a rare consensus in the ongoing legal proceedings initiated in late 2023. The previous order had mandated OpenAI to store significant data volumes to facilitate The New York Times' copyright claims.
The preservation order, introduced in May of the previous year, was contentious due to its requirement for OpenAI to retain deleted and temporary chat data. OpenAI argued that this measure infringed on privacy and posed risks by storing sensitive user data. The New York Times and other plaintiffs contended that the order was necessary to verify if their copyrighted content was used in training OpenAI's language models. OpenAI contested this order for several months, although attempts by users to intervene in court to protect their data were denied.
A United States federal court has ruled in favor of OpenAI by lifting the previous order that required the company to indefinitely preserve its chat logs.
According to the new ruling, OpenAI must maintain the integrity of previously saved logs. The order specifies that OpenAI will continue to preserve output log data saved under the original Preservation Order before Sep 26, 2025, except for data from users in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the UK.
OpenAI has identified and preserved data linked to domains flagged by The New York Times and other plaintiffs, including over 90 websites. Should new domains be identified, OpenAI and the plaintiffs must engage in discussions to address their inclusion.
Implications for OpenAI and The New York Times
The decision permits OpenAI to revert to its standard data retention policies, alleviating the technical and financial burdens of indefinite data storage. The New York Times can continue analyzing previously saved data but cannot request new logs unless additional domains are formally identified. The overarching copyright case remains active, with The New York Times and other outlets alleging unconsented use of their articles by OpenAI and Microsoft’s AI systems. Both parties deny these allegations.
The ruling emphasizes that it does not alter obligations under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e), allowing either party to seek further relief if disputes arise over deleted data. While this decision closes a chapter in OpenAI's most restrictive data order, the main copyright case is ongoing, with plaintiffs pursuing policy changes to prevent AI companies from using protected journalism in their datasets.
Based on reporting by techround.co.uk.