French authors sue Meta for violating copyright in AI training
What's the story
France's top publishing and authors' associations have sued tech giant Meta. The National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL) accuse Meta of using their copyright-protected content without permission to train its AI systems. The complaint was filed in a Paris court earlier this week, accusing Meta of economic "parasitism."
Concerns
Alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted content
The associations allege that Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has illegally utilized their copyrighted products to train its AI models. Maia Bensimon, the General Delegate of SNAC called this "monumental looting." Meanwhile, SNE Director General Renaud Lefebvre described it as a "David versus Goliath battle," emphasizing the importance of this lawsuit.
Legal trend
Wave of copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta
This lawsuit is the first legal action against an AI giant in France. However, a similar trend is growing in the United States, where authors, visual artists, music publishers and other copyright owners are suing Meta and other tech firms over data used to train their generative AI systems. Notably, US actress Sarah Silverman and novelist Christopher Farnsworth have also sued Meta for allegedly misusing their books to train its large language model Llama.