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Amicus briefs pile up on summary judgment in the OpenAI cases: Midjourney and Runway back OpenAI and Microsoft on fair use; law professors and AI startups side with authors and publishers

Between Oct. 28 and 30, 2026, dozens of outside groups and individuals asked Judge Sidney Stein for leave to file friend-of-the-court briefs on the summary-judgment motions in the consolidated authors' and news publishers' cases against OpenAI and Microsoft. Midjourney, itself a defendant in studio and artist suits, and video-model maker Runway filed a 35-page proposed brief for the defendants, arguing that generative AI drives rather than diminishes human creativity and that the public benefits of training on copyrighted works weigh strongly toward fair use. Proposed briefs filed in support of the plaintiffs came from a group of copyright law professors and a group of AI startups; Public Knowledge (in part) and Gregory Leppert filed for the defendants. Others asking to be heard include members of Congress, the Copyright Alliance, the Association of American Publishers and other publishing groups, musicians', actors' and writers' unions, Authors Alliance, the Wikimedia Foundation, Engine Advocacy, Chamber of Progress, WME, Michael Moritz and Professor Matthew Sag. These are arguments, not findings; the court has not ruled on leave or on the motions.