Court Orders Meta to Name Execs in AI Copyright Lawsuit

A recent court order has directed Meta to identify executives responsible for authorizing the piracy of books used in its AI training datasets. This directive impacts class-action lawsuits filed by authors and publishers alleging copyright infringement. Previously, Meta had attempted to attribute the downloading of torrents from sites like Anna's Archive and LibGen solely to staff, suggesting an "informal approach" with no clear leadership decisions.

However, testimony from Meta employees revealed discomfort and resistance to these directions, with some staffers indicating that director or VP-level approval was required for such downloads. One unsealed message string even suggested a prior escalation to Mark Zuckerberg regarding decisions to download from LibGen. Meta's argument that no single decision-maker existed for these actions was challenged, as the request sought all individuals who made, authorized, or approved such decisions.

The court has further compelled Meta to produce detailed server command history files for all machines used in torrenting, including virtual machines and AWS instances. This information could provide critical evidence for plaintiffs seeking to prove Meta's involvement in seeding pirated works and could shed light on the company's alleged "mitigation" methods. The order also requires Meta to provide information regarding pirated works not used for AI training.