Court orders Meta to name staff who approved pirated ebooks for AI training
10/21/2026 — 10/22, 13:21·1 sources (all)·1 reports (all)
Key takeaways
- In a lawsuit brought by book publishers and authors, Judge Thomas Hixson ordered Meta to hand over download-server command histories and ide…
Background & analysis
On October 21, 2026, Solidot reported on a development in a lawsuit brought against Meta by book publishers and authors over the use of pirated ebooks to train AI models. The plaintiffs are seeking to establish who ordered the downloading of content from pirate ebook sources. According to the report, Meta downloaded a large number of pirated ebooks from the shadow libraries Anna's Archive and LibGen for AI training.
In court, Meta said it could not identify a specific person who formally made the decision, because such decisions were typically the result of team consensus. As for downloading torrents of the pirated ebook collections through BitTorrent, Meta characterized this as a technical decision made by the employees responsible for carrying out the downloads.
Judge Thomas Hixson then ordered Meta to provide the command history of the download servers and to list everyone involved in approving the downloading activity. That includes decision-makers who determined whether and how seeding would be carried out, and whether steps were taken to mitigate the impact of seeding. The case currently rests at this point: the court has issued the disclosure order, and the report does not say whether Meta has submitted the list or responded further.
AI-generated from 1 reports · updated 2 hours ago
Latest turnAccording to Solidot, judge Thomas Hixson ordered Meta to provide download server instruction histories and list employees who authorized downloading pirated e-books to train its AI models. Meta previously argued that the decisions were collective team choices and technical execution by staff.
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According to Solidot, judge Thomas Hixson ordered Meta to provide download server instruction histories and list employees who authorized downloading pirated e-books to train its AI models. Meta previously argued that the decisions were collective team choices and technical execution by staff.
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