A federal judge has permitted an AI-related copyright lawsuit against Meta to proceed, despite dismissing part of the case. In the lawsuit, Kadrey vs. Meta, authors Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates allege that Meta infringed on their intellectual property by using their books to train its Llama AI models. They also claim that Meta removed copyright information from their works to obscure this infringement.
Meta contends that its training practices fall under fair use and argues that the authors lack standing to sue. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria expressed skepticism about dismissing the case but criticized the authors' legal teams for their exaggerated rhetoric. In his ruling, Chhabria affirmed that the authors' claims of copyright infringement represent a concrete injury sufficient for standing. He noted that they adequately alleged that Meta intentionally removed copyright management information (CMI) to hide the infringement.
However, the judge dismissed the authors' claims under the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA), stating that they did not prove Meta accessed their computers or servers, only their data. The lawsuit has revealed insights into Meta's copyright practices, including claims that Mark Zuckerberg authorized the use of copyrighted works for training and discussions among Meta staff regarding the use of questionable content for AI training. Other AI copyright lawsuits, such as The New York Times' case against OpenAI, are also currently under consideration by the courts.
