ICYMI: Meta wins copyright case over use of books to train its AI system

A US court has ruled in favour of Meta in a copyright infringement suit filed by a group of authors over the company’s use of their books to train its artificial intelligence (AI) system.

The authors, including Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, filed the suit in 2023, accusing Meta of using pirated copies of their books without permission to train Llama, its large language model.

But in a ruling on Wednesday, Vince Chhabria, a district judge in San Francisco, said the authors failed to prove that Meta’s actions harmed the market for their books.

He said the use of the works qualified as “fair use,” a legal doctrine in US law that permits the limited use of copyrighted materials without consent.

However, the judge said the ruling should not be interpreted as a green light for AI companies to freely use copyrighted content.

“This ruling does not stand for the proposition that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials to train its language models is lawful,” the judge said.

“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 also dismissed Meta’s argument that restricting access to copyrighted content would hurt AI innovation, describing the claim as “nonsense”.

He acknowledged concerns raised by creatives who argue that AI models can flood the market with content similar to theirs and threaten their livelihoods.

The authors’ legal team disagreed with the court’s decision, however, Meta welcomed the ruling and described fair use as a “vital legal framework” for building transformative AI technology.

Meta is also facing regulatory pressure in Nigeria.

In July 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) fined Meta $220 million for multiple data privacy violations.

The fine followed a joint investigation with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) into Meta’s conduct, policies and practices between May 2021 and December 2023.

Meta’s said it would appeal the fine and threatened to withdraw from the Nigerian market.