Five publishers and author Scott Turow sue Meta and Mark Zuckerberg over alleged unauthorized use of millions of copyrighted works to train Llama AI language system

The class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan by Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, and author Scott Turow, accusing Meta of reproducing and distributing millions of copyrighted works without permission or compensation to train Llama.

The plaintiffs allege that Zuckerberg 'personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement' by following Meta's motto to 'move fast and break things' in drawing upon books and journal articles, despite knowing the conduct violated copyright law.

Meta stated it will 'fight this lawsuit aggressively' and defended the practice as fair use, noting that 'courts have rightly found that training AI on copyrighted material can qualify as fair use.'