{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0321","record_version":1,"title":"ChatGPT-written Game of Thrones fanfic prompts George R.R. Martin lawsuit","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":49.0,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":6.0,"completeness":2.88,"unhedged_language":4.55},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"c9aa5901279e6f9d331f0f63226a35c324ed8223666e6bde9f6eb3643cfab3e3"},"system":{"model_name":"ChatGPT","model_version":null,"developer":"OpenAI","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2025-11-12","incident_class":"ip_infringement","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A ChatGPT system developed by OpenAI produced outlines of sequels to Game of Thrones, according to a lawsuit by George R.R. Martin and other authors alleging copyright infringement. The complaint alleges OpenAI used their works to train its large language models, generated infringing outputs, and torrented books from illegal shadow libraries. In an October 27, 2025 ruling, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein denied OpenAI's argument that the outputs were transformative, finding them substantially similar to the plaintiffs' works. The judge also allowed the piracy claim to proceed. The decision did not address fair use. Plaintiffs had earlier secured internal Slack messages in which OpenAI discussed deleting datasets of pirated books.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK17"},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","severity_because":"Major test met: many third parties, since the sentence names six other authors whose claims are consolidated with Martin's, which is a count of two or more affected parties.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.bgr.com/2018864/george-rr-martin-sue-chatgpt-game-of-thrones-copyright-infringment/","publisher":"BGR","date":"2025-11-12","type":"press","title":"ChatGPT Wrote Game Of Thrones Fanfic, And Now George RR Martin Is Suing - BGR","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"C","system.model_name":"C","event.incident_class":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","context.country":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In October 2025, a New York federal judge denied OpenAI's request to dismiss Martin's accusations that ChatGPT had violated the copyrights of his books and television programs when it produced outlines of sequels to Game of Thrones without his consent."}],"system.model_name":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"OpenAI has argued that ChatGPT's outputs were transformative enough not to violate copyright protections."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In their complaint, Martin and his contemporaries allege that OpenAI violated copyright by using their work to train its large language models, generating outputs that infringed upon the plaintiffs' copyrights, and torrenting books from illegal shadow libraries."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The lawsuit consolidates similar claims from other major authors, including activist Ta-Nehisi Coates, comedian Sarah Silverman, and fiction giants Jonathan Franzen, David Baldacci, Jodi Picoult, and John Grisham."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The lawsuit consolidates similar claims from other major authors, including activist Ta-Nehisi Coates, comedian Sarah Silverman, and fiction giants Jonathan Franzen, David Baldacci, Jodi Picoult, and John Grisham."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In October 2025, a New York federal judge denied OpenAI's request to dismiss Martin's accusations that ChatGPT had violated the copyrights of his books and television programs when it produced outlines of sequels to Game of Thrones without his consent."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"In their complaint, Martin and his contemporaries allege that OpenAI violated copyright by using their work to train its large language models, generating outputs that infringed upon the plaintiffs' copyrights, and torrenting books from illegal shadow libraries."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"However, in his October 27, 2025, ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein denied this claim, noting that outputs were \"substantially similar to plaintiffs' works.\""},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Stein also dismissed OpenAI's claim that the plaintiffs could not add piracy complaints to the docket, permitting the charge against OpenAI's possession of pirated works, regardless of their usage."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Importantly, the decision did not address the question of fair use."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The ruling comes a few weeks after plaintiffs secured internal Slack messages in which OpenAI discussed deleting datasets of pirated books."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Only one press source (BGR, dated 2025-11-12) was provided; it is not the implicated organisation's report or a government evaluator's. The source does not state the date the outputs were produced, the date of disclosure or detection, the model version, the deployment context, the lifecycle stage, or any country beyond the New York federal court. Event.date_disclosed was not set from the article date because it reports a court ruling, not the incident's disclosure. No agent, tools, permissions or autonomy are described, so agent fields and failure_class were left out. No controls held, failed or were bypassed in this incident are stated, so links are empty. No remediation is reported. Judgements made: incident_class set to ip_infringement and harm_class to ip from the copyright claims; severity set to major because the named plaintiffs form a count of two or more affected third parties. Other cases and events in the article (Anthropic, Meta, news organisations, Ross Intelligence, Character.AI) were excluded as not part of this incident. The article's statement that the decision did not address fair use is reported as stated; no fair use outcome is recorded. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (Publisher not yet named · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"ChatGPT allegedly produced outlines of sequels to Game of Thrones without the author's consent.","quote":"In October 2025, a New York federal judge denied OpenAI's request to dismiss Martin's accusations that ChatGPT had violated the copyrights of his books and television programs when it produced outlines of sequels to Game of Thrones without his consent.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"Plaintiffs allege the training used their works, the outputs infringed their copyrights, and pirated books were torrented.","quote":"In their complaint, Martin and his contemporaries allege that OpenAI violated copyright by using their work to train its large language models, generating outputs that infringed upon the plaintiffs' copyrights, and torrenting books from illegal shadow libraries.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"Plaintiffs secured internal Slack messages in which OpenAI discussed deleting datasets of pirated books; the source does not say how they were obtained.","quote":"The ruling comes a few weeks after plaintiffs secured internal Slack messages in which OpenAI discussed deleting datasets of pirated books.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.bgr.com/2018864/george-rr-martin-sue-chatgpt-game-of-thrones-copyright-infringment/"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"A New York federal judge denied OpenAI's request to dismiss the copyright accusations over Game of Thrones sequel outlines.","quote":"In October 2025, a New York federal judge denied OpenAI's request to dismiss Martin's accusations that ChatGPT had violated the copyrights of his books and television programs when it produced outlines of sequels to Game of Thrones without his consent.","source_index":0,"when":"2025-10"},{"text":"Plaintiffs secured internal Slack messages a few weeks before the ruling.","quote":"The ruling comes a few weeks after plaintiffs secured internal Slack messages in which OpenAI discussed deleting datasets of pirated books.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Judge Sidney Stein denied OpenAI's claim that the outputs were transformative.","quote":"However, in his October 27, 2025, ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein denied this claim, noting that outputs were \"substantially similar to plaintiffs' works.\"","source_index":0,"when":"2025-10-27"},{"text":"The judge allowed the piracy charge against OpenAI to proceed.","quote":"Stein also dismissed OpenAI's claim that the plaintiffs could not add piracy complaints to the docket, permitting the charge against OpenAI's possession of pirated works, regardless of their usage.","source_index":0,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.bgr.com/2018864/george-rr-martin-sue-chatgpt-game-of-thrones-copyright-infringment/"]}}