AAP Files Amicus Brief in Meta AI Copyright Case
The Association of American Publishers filed an amicus brief on April 11 supporting authors in their class action lawsuit against Meta for copyright infringement related to AI training. The brief argues that Meta's use of copyrighted works to train its LLaMA AI model fails to meet fair use standards and contradicts the company's claims that licensing options for such content don't exist.
According to Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of AAP, "Meta's systematic copying and encoding of protected creative works, word by word, into a large language model, is not a transformative fair use under the law, but rather, grossly exceeds the doctrine's legal purpose and judicial precedent."
Lawsuit Details
The lawsuit, filed in December 2023 in the Northern District of California, includes plaintiffs Sarah Silverman, Richard Kadrey, Christopher Golden, Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Junot Díaz. They allege Meta appropriated millions of copyrighted works without permission or compensation, obtaining much of the material from pirate sites like Anna's Archives and LibGen. This is one of approximately 40 ongoing lawsuits brought by publishing industry organizations, companies, authors, and others against AI companies.
Market Insights
According to the brief, "Some researchers estimate the AI training license market to be valued at $2.5 billion now, and projected to grow to $30 billion within a decade." Meta’s current market valuation is estimated to be $1.4 trillion dollars.
The AAP brief directly challenges Meta's assertion that there is no viable licensing option for AI training materials, while stating that "the existence of an active market for AI training materials is indisputable." The document references existing licensing deals between AI companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Amazon with various publishers.
Discussion with Publishers
The AAP notes that Meta reportedly held discussions with publishers about acquiring authorized content before ultimately choosing to use pirated materials instead. Much of this is outlined in Alex Reisner’s reporting for The Atlantic.
The brief states that Meta's actions "undermine the copyright incentives that Congress enacted" and damage authors' and publishers' ability to benefit from their creative investments.
Highlights from the Brief
The brief further argues that a finding of fair use in this case "would not only undermine the public interest in a workable copyright regime, but encourage and reward theft twice over." Other organizations filing amicus briefs include the Copyright Alliance, The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, and Copyright Law Professors.
FTC Case Begins Today
The filing was made on Friday. Today, Meta will begin addressing an antitrust case brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which alleges that Meta's acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 were part of a strategy to suppress competition and establish a monopoly in the social media market. The FTC argues that these acquisitions were designed to eliminate potential rivals, violating federal antitrust laws, and seeks to compel Meta to divest these platforms to restore competition.
