A federal judge dismissed a major copyright lawsuit against Meta on Wednesday. Thirteen authors alleged Meta illegally used their work to train AI, but the judge said their arguments fell short.
Creators push back, but court rules for Meta
The lawsuit, filed in 2023, involved comedian Sarah Silverman, novelist Jacqueline Woodson and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. The group accused Meta of stealing copyrighted works from the internet to train its generative AI system, Llama.
They had hoped the court would declare Meta’s use unlawful. However, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that the authors didn’t present a strong enough case to proceed.
Arguments were underdeveloped
In the ruling obtained by Courthouse News, Chhabria clarified that the dismissal “does not mean Meta’s use of the copyrighted materials was lawful.” Instead, he wrote, “It stands only for the proposition that these plaintiffs made the wrong arguments and failed to develop a record in support of the right one.”
Chhabria said the plaintiffs’ lawyers missed the mark on a “potentially winning argument.” They didn’t provide evidence showing how Meta’s model could flood the market with outputs that might dilute the value of original work.
Lawyers push back on decision
In a statement to The Associated Press, the authors’ lawyers said the court acknowledged that using copyright-protected works without permission is generally illegal. Despite this, they said, the court still ruled in Meta’s favor despite “Meta’s historically unprecedented pirating of copyrighted works.”
Meta responded to the ruling with a statement of its own to the AP. The company emphasized that open-source AI models support innovation and creativity and said, “Fair use of copyright material is a vital legal framework for building this transformative technology.”
Not the only case
The judge noted that the ruling applies only to this case and doesn’t prevent future lawsuits against Meta or other AI companies. In fact, this marks the second legal win for an AI firm this week.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled Monday that Anthropic legally trained its chatbot Claude using copyrighted books — but must go to trial over how it obtained those books, allegedly through pirate websites.
Lawsuits over AI and copyright are becoming more common as companies rely on vast data sets — often including artists’ works or even celebrity voices — to train models.
In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Reddit filed a lawsuit against Anthropic on June 4, making it the first time a big tech company sued the start-up. The complaint accuses Anthropic of violating Reddit’s user agreement by using its data commercially without a license. While OpenAI and Google have licensing deals, Reddit claims Anthropic knowingly used its data without permission.
What’s next for the authors?
Meta argued users of Llama cannot access or reproduce the copyrighted works, and that no one has used the system to replicate or replace the authors’ content.
According to Variety, the authors’ lawyers declined to comment on whether or not they would appeal the decision.
