Hundreds of authors sue Meta alleging copyright infringement for AI training

Nearly 300 authors filed individual copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta Platforms on October 19 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Publishers Weekly reported. The plaintiffs allege that Meta trained its artificial intelligence models on pirated copies of their books as well as physical books purchased and scanned without a license. [1]

According to Publishers Weekly, each author is pursuing an individual legal claim rather than joining a class action lawsuit. The authors are seeking a jury trial alongside the maximum statutory remedy of $150,000 per act of infringement. [1]

Attorney Kyle Roche of the law firm Freedman Normand Friedland stated that his firm currently represents more than 2,200 authors recruited through his platform, ClaimsHero, Publishers Weekly reported. Roche indicated that many more cases against Meta will be coming. [1]

Meta Platforms is an American technology company based in Menlo Park, California, that operates social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. Copyright infringement involves the unauthorized use of protected works where permission is legally required. [4][5]