Meta, Anthropic Secure Legal Wins in AI Copyright Battles
Tech giants Meta and Anthropic have scored major courtroom victories in closely watched copyright lawsuits over AI model training.
But while both companies were shielded by fair use arguments, Anthropic still faces a trial over allegations of using pirated books—a warning shot for the entire AI industry.
Anthropic: Fair Use Upheld, But Piracy Trial Looms
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books to train its Claude language models qualifies as fair use—because the company’s use was “exceedingly transformative.”
This is the first federal ruling to affirm that training large language models (LLMs) on legally acquired copyrighted texts can be protected under fair use.
However, Alsup also ruled that Anthropic must stand trial for allegations of downloading pirated books from illegal repositories like Library Genesis and Z-Library.
The plaintiffs allege that these pirated versions, used to supplement Anthropic’s dataset, represent a clear-cut copyright violation.
Meta: Major Win in Class Action from Celebrity Authors
In a separate but related ruling, Judge Vince Chhabria largely dismissed a copyright lawsuit brought against Meta by a group of prominent authors, who accused the company of illegally using their work to train its LLaMA models.
Chhabria ruled that while the authors raised valid ethical concerns, they failed to provide sufficient evidence of direct copying or market harm, which is crucial under current copyright law.
The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning a more detailed, better-argued case could still be brought in the future.
Industry-Wide Takeaways
Courts have confirmed that AI training on legally obtained data may qualify as fair use, but using unauthorized content like pirated books remains a serious legal risk.
Anthropic faces trial over such allegations, while Meta’s lawsuit was dismissed due to lack of concrete evidence—highlighting that future challenges may succeed if better argued.
What’s Next?
While these rulings offer some relief to AI developers, they also don’t set universal precedent.
Experts predict a wave of more refined lawsuits and increasing legislative interest in AI training practices—especially around content licensing, transparency, and ethical use.
News Gist
Meta and Anthropic won key AI copyright cases, with courts upholding fair use for training on legally obtained data.
However, Anthropic must face trial over using pirated books.
Meta’s case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, but future suits may succeed.
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