Meta has come out on top in a recent lawsuit involving well-known individuals, particularly focusing on its use of various copyrighted works, including Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal.” This lawsuit, brought forth two years ago by authors Richard Cudley, Christopher Golden, and comedian Sarah Silverman, alleged that the tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram had used over 190,000 copyrighted materials without authorization or compensation.
According to the claims, this material was utilized to train Meta’s language models. Interestingly, even works by Trump’s children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., were mentioned in relation to the case.
The plaintiffs contended that Meta engaged in significant copyright infringement by sourcing these works from a repository of pirated materials, which were then employed in the development of its AI system, known as LLaMA.
In its defense, Meta argued in court that U.S. copyright laws permit transformation of illegal copies into new creations, asserting that the AI-generated outputs produced by chatbots differ fundamentally from the original works.
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has been active in aligning himself strategically with Trump, meeting him post-elections at Mar-a-Lago. There, he contributed $1 million to Trump’s fund and enlisted a Republican strategist to steer Meta’s political engagements.
Moreover, Zuckerberg has adapted Meta’s content moderation approach to better align with conservative viewpoints. He has publicly acknowledged Trump’s perspective on technology and free speech.
In court documents, Meta did recognize that its training data included copyrighted content, raising critical inquiries about whether this practice aligns with fair use standards.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed the case, labeling the plaintiffs’ arguments as “false.” Nonetheless, he clarified that this dismissal pertains only to the specific authors involved in the case and doesn’t legally permit Meta to utilize copyrighted materials.
Chhabria maintained that the ruling does not imply Meta’s practices surrounding copyrighted content are lawful, but rather pointed out the plaintiffs’ failure to build a strong enough case.
The lawyers representing the plaintiffs, which include notable authors like Silverman, Jacqueline Woodson, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, expressed disappointment. They insisted the court’s ruling fails to acknowledge the rights of copyright holders and echoed concerns over Meta’s handling of copyright law.
Meta expressed appreciation for the ruling, emphasizing its goal to foster transformative innovation through open-source AI technologies while navigating fair use in copyright materials.
In other news, the court recently indicated that it’s permissible to train AI models like Claude Chatbots on legally acquired texts, although additional trials regarding the use of pirated works are still ongoing.
Several lawsuits against Microsoft from news organizations about the misuse of news content for AI training are also still in the works, with no final verdict reached yet.
