Meta Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged 82TB Pirated Books for AI

Meta is currently facing a class action lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement related to its use of pirated content for training its AI systems, including LLaMA. Newly unsealed court documents reveal that Meta downloaded approximately 81.7 terabytes of data from shadow libraries like Anna's Archive, Z-Library, and LibGen, prompting concerns among its employees about the legality of these actions. Internal communications show that Meta researchers expressed ethical reservations about using pirated material, with one stating, 'I don’t think we should use pirated material' and another comparing their data sources to piracy sites like PirateBay. Despite these internal warnings, Meta reportedly continued to utilize these materials, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg allegedly advocating for the expedited use of such data. The lawsuit highlights a broader trend in the tech industry, where companies like OpenAI and Nvidia are also facing legal challenges over similar copyright issues. This situation underscores the ongoing legal and ethical dilemmas surrounding the training of AI models using unlicensed content.