France’s leading publishing and authors’ associations have filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the U.S. tech giant of using copyrighted content without permission to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The lawsuit was filed earlier this week in a Paris court, with the plaintiffs alleging copyright infringement and economic “parasitism.”
The groups behind the lawsuit include the National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL), which represent authors and publishers in France. They argue that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been illegally using copyright-protected material to enhance its AI models.
Maia Bensimon, general delegate of SNAC, described the actions as a form of “monumental looting.” Renaud Lefebvre, Director General of SNE, referred to the lawsuit as “David versus Goliath,” emphasizing that the legal action aims to set a precedent for the protection of copyright in the face of rapidly advancing AI technologies.
This lawsuit marks the first of its kind in France against an AI giant, though similar legal actions are already underway in other countries, particularly in the United States. In 2023, Sarah Silverman, an American actress and author, along with other plaintiffs, sued Meta for allegedly misusing their works to train its Llama language model. Other authors, including Christopher Farnsworth, have also filed lawsuits against Meta for similar claims.
In addition to Meta, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, faces similar copyright lawsuits in the United States, Canada, and India over the data used to train its generative AI systems.
