Statutory damages exposure calculation
OpenAI Blog / Legal Statement — corporate communications, OpenAI Official Blog: 'OpenAI and Copyright'
“We strive to be the most creator-friendly AI company. We offer opt-outs, work on revenue sharing, and believe existing lawsuits are fundamentally mistaken about fair use.”
OpenAI Legal Risk Counsel — internal legal risk analysis, Unredacted Discovery Memo
“If plaintiffs establish willful infringement on the full LibGen manifest, maximum statutory damages at $150,000 per registered work across 290k works would total $43.5 billion, which poses existential solvency risk.”
The Split:The public blog called the lawsuits 'fundamentally mistaken' and championed creator-friendly values. Privately, legal counsel calculated that if the LibGen torrent records were proven willful, statutory damages would bankrupt the entire firm.
The louder a tech company proclaims its enthusiasm for creators during litigation, the higher the statutory liability figure its lawyers just calculated.