Meta and Zuckerberg Sued Over Alleged AI Training Copyright Infringement
Original: Mark Zuckerberg ‘Personally Authorized and Actively Encouraged’ Meta’s Massive Copyright Infringement to Train AI Systems, Publishers and Scott Turow Allege in Lawsuit
Why This Matters
Major test case for AI industry's use of copyrighted content for training
Five major publishers and author Scott Turow filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, alleging the company illegally copied millions of books and articles from pirate sites to train its Llama AI system without permission.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York accuses Meta of engaging in 'one of the most massive infringements of copyrighted materials in history.' Plaintiffs include publishers Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Elsevier and Cengage. The suit alleges Meta 'illegally torrented millions of copyrighted books and journal articles from notorious pirate sites' to train its multibillion-dollar Llama AI system. Meta responded it will 'fight this lawsuit aggressively,' citing that courts have found training AI on copyrighted material can qualify as fair use. Previous similar lawsuits against AI companies have failed, including a June 2025 case where a federal judge ruled Meta's use of nearly 200,000 books constituted fair use.