View source for News Ted Entertainment Sues OpenAI Apple Amazon DMCA 2026

On April 3, 2026, '''Ted Entertainment, Inc.''' filed a trio of class-action lawsuits in federal court against [[OpenAI]], [[Apple]], and [[Amazon]], alleging violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by circumventing YouTube's technological protection measures to scrape copyrighted videos for AI training.<ref name="piracymonitor">[https://piracymonitor.org/youtube-publisher-sues-apple-amazon-openai-for-using-their-videos-to-train-ai/ Piracy Monitor - YouTube publisher sues Apple, Amazon, OpenAI]</ref><ref name="tubefilter">[https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/04/08/ted-entertainment-matt-fisher-golfholics-apple-amazon-lawsuits/ Tubefilter - Ted Entertainment files lawsuits]</ref>

== The Lawsuits ==

The cases—''Ted Entertainment v. OpenAI Inc.'' (N.D. Cal., Case 3:26-cv-02935), ''Ted Entertainment v. Apple Inc.'' (N.D. Cal., Case 3:26-cv-02936), and ''Ted Entertainment v. Amazon.com, Inc.'' (W.D. Wash., Case 2:26-cv-01134)—were filed by plaintiffs Ted Entertainment (creator of "h3h3 Productions" and "H3 Podcast Highlights"), Matt Fisher ("MrShortGame Golf"), and Golfholics.<ref name="piracymonitor" /><ref name="geekwire">[https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-sued-by-youtubers-for-allegedly-scraping-their-content-to-train-ai-video-tool/ GeekWire - Amazon sued by YouTubers]</ref>

Collectively, the plaintiffs operate YouTube channels with over 6 million subscribers and 4.3 billion views.<ref name="piracymonitor" />

== Key Allegations ==

The plaintiffs allege defendants bypassed YouTube's technological protection measures—including streaming-only delivery, API limits, access controls, rolling ciphers, and IP detection systems—to download millions of videos at scale.<ref name="piracymonitor" /><ref name="chatgpt">[https://chatgptiseatingtheworld.com/2026/04/14/video-creator-ted-entertainment-now-alleges-youtube-videos-have-not-just-1-but-5-technological-protection-measures/ ChatGPT is Eating the World - Five alleged TPMs]</ref>

=== OpenAI and Sora ===

The complaint against OpenAI targets its Sora text-to-video AI model.<ref name="piracymonitor" /> Plaintiffs identified their content in multiple datasets including HD-VILA-100M (146-285 videos), HD-VG-130M (83-209 videos), and Panda-70M (155-283 videos).<ref name="piracymonitor" />

=== Apple and Panda-70M ===

The lawsuit against Apple targets "Apple AI Video" models allegedly trained using the Panda-70M dataset—70 million clips split from YouTube videos released by Snap in 2024.<ref name="piracymonitor" /><ref name="claimdepot">[https://www.claimdepot.com/cases/apple-sued-for-allegedly-scraping-millions-of-youtube-videos-for-ai-training ClaimDepot - Apple sued for allegedly scraping YouTube videos]</ref>

=== Amazon and Nova Reel ===

The suit against Amazon targets Nova Reel, Amazon's text-to-video AI model accessible via AWS Bedrock.<ref name="geekwire" /><ref name="law360">[https://www.law360.com/articles/2461742/youtube-creators-say-amazon-scrapes-videos-to-train-ai Law360 - YouTube creators say Amazon scrapes videos to train AI]</ref>

== Legal Theory ==

All three cases allege violations of 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a), the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision, which prohibits circumventing technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.<ref name="piracymonitor" /> Plaintiffs seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 per violation, class certification, and permanent injunctions.<ref name="piracymonitor" />

== Significance ==

These cases mark the seventh lawsuit filed by Ted Entertainment against AI companies, following prior actions against Meta, Nvidia, ByteDance, and Snap.<ref name="piracymonitor" /> The litigation tests whether downloading YouTube videos for AI training—even when content is publicly viewable—violates the DMCA when TPMs are circumvented.<ref name="thenextweb">[https://thenextweb.com/news/amazon-nova-reel-youtubers-dmca-lawsuit The Next Web - Amazon Nova Reel YouTubers DMCA lawsuit]</ref>

== References ==

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[[Category:Copyright Litigation]]
[[Category:Cases Against OpenAI]]
[[Category:DMCA]]
[[Category:Music Industry]]