In the ongoing copyright cases concerning Meta’s use of AI training data, the company has spent weeks pointing the finger at employees who accessed illegal torrents. A recent court order now requires Meta to identify the executives who authorized the use of books from shadow libraries such as Anna’s Archive and LibGen, according to TorrentFreak.
The order stems from a discovery ruling in a class‑action suit filed by authors including Richard Kadrey and Sarah Silverman, as well as a separate case brought by publisher Entrepreneur Media. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixon largely sided with the plaintiffs, stating that Meta must clearly name the senior staff who made the decisions to pirate the material. Testimony from Meta employees who downloaded the torrents suggests that a broader group of supervisors, managers and executives could be implicated.
Meta had tried to avoid outlining a chain of command, especially for those involved in the early stages of AI training. In a court filing, the company described its initial efforts to build large AI datasets as an “informal approach,” claiming that no senior official made a formal decision. Instead, Meta argued that the “decision” was limited to the fact that some employees “technically” downloaded the torrents.