Five major publishers—Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan, and McGraw Hill—along with bestselling author Scott Turow, filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta Platforms in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges that Meta pirated millions of copyrighted works, including textbooks, scientific articles, and novels, to train its AI model Llama without permission. The plaintiffs claim Meta scraped content from notorious pirate sites like LibGen and Anna's Archive, bypassing legal licensing markets. They seek unspecified monetary damages and request permission to represent a larger class of copyright owners.
The lawsuit marks a new front in the ongoing copyright battle between creators and tech companies over AI training. Meta has not yet responded to requests for comment. The publishers argue that Meta's actions undermine scholarship and creativity, while Meta has previously defended its practices as fair use in other legal disputes.
The complaint alleges that Meta briefly considered licensing deals with publishers but abandoned the effort in April 2023 after CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly authorized a shift to pirated content. The lawsuit claims Zuckerberg's involvement in AI development contributed to Meta's alleged infringement, which the plaintiffs say has robbed authors and publishers of revenue.
Meta has stated it will fight the lawsuit aggressively, arguing that training AI on copyrighted material can qualify as fair use. The case is part of a broader legal battle involving AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, which have also faced lawsuits over copyright infringement.