June 25, 2025 – San Francisco, CA – In a closely watched case that could shape the future of artificial intelligence, a U.S. federal judge ruled in favor of Meta, dismissing a lawsuit by 13 book authors who claimed the company illegally trained its AI models on their copyrighted works.
Among the plaintiffs was comedian and author Sarah Silverman, who alleged her books had been used without permission. But Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that Meta’s use of those texts was “transformative” and qualified as fair use, delivering a notable—though not sweeping—win for the tech giant.
“This ruling does not stand for the proposition that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials… is lawful in all cases,” Chhabria wrote, clarifying the decision’s limited scope.
The court issued a summary judgment, meaning the case was resolved without going to a jury trial.
Plaintiffs Failed to Prove Harm to Book Market
One key reason Meta prevailed was the lack of evidence showing market harm, a major factor in copyright infringement analysis.
“The plaintiffs presented no meaningful evidence on market dilution at all,” Judge Chhabria stated.
He emphasized that while Meta’s use was deemed fair in this instance, future lawsuits could result in different outcomes, particularly if evidence of economic damage is stronger.
Part of a Larger Legal Landscape
This decision follows a similar ruling in favor of Anthropic, another AI firm also sued for training its models on copyrighted books. Together, the cases are setting early precedents in the battle between creators and AI companies over how data is used to train generative models.
However, not all tech firms are in the clear. Ongoing lawsuits include:
- The New York Times vs. OpenAI and Microsoft, over AI models trained on journalism.
- Disney and Universal vs. Midjourney, over alleged misuse of film and TV content.
Judge Chhabria hinted that the stakes could be higher for certain industries, stating, “Markets for certain types of works, like news articles, might be even more vulnerable to indirect competition from AI outputs.”
What This Means for AI Companies
While this win bolsters Meta’s position, it also signals to developers and legal teams that each case will turn on the specific use case and market effects. Legal experts agree the issue of fair use in AI training is far from settled and will likely evolve with future rulings.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JREzjtJ23Tg
