In a recent decision that could have significant implications for the tech and publishing industries, a federal judge in California has ruled that Meta Platforms is permitted to use copyrighted books to train its large language models, known as Llama. The ruling comes after several bestselling authors accused Meta of infringing on their intellectual property rights by utilizing copyrighted materials without consent, including obtaining them from pirated sources.
The court’s decision effectively characterizes Meta’s practices as fair use, a legal doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders. This ruling may set a precedent for other technology companies employing similar methodologies in training their artificial intelligence models.
Further details on this ruling can be accessed via Law360.