Meta's AI copyright fair use argument challenged by U.S. federal judge: "Your innovations significantly alter, to the point of almost eliminating, the market value of the original creator's work."
Rewritten Article:
In a mind-boggling turn of events, comedy extraordinaire Sarah Silverman and two other authors filed lawsuits against tech giants Meta Platforms and OpenAI in 2023, accusing them of pirating their work to train AI language models without permission. Fast forward to 2025, and the case against Meta is gaining steam as the judge, Vince Chhabria, seems less than impressed with Meta's fair use defense.
During a San Francisco court hearing last Thursday, Chhabria questioned Meta's attorneys, "You have companies using copyright-protected material to create a product that is capable of producing an infinite number of competing products. You are dramatically changing, you might even say obliterating, the market for that person's work, and you're saying that you don't even have to pay a license to that person... I just don't understand how that can be fair use."
Under U.S. copyright law, fair use allows the use of copyrighted materials without explicit permission from the copyright holder, provided it's for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, or research. However, several factors are evaluated when determining ifUsage of copyrighted works falls under fair use, including the impact on the market for the work in question.
Meta argues that their AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by studying it to generate "transformative" new content. Judge Chhabria, however, seems to disagree, stating, "This seems like a highly unusual case in the sense that though the copying is for a highly transformative purpose, the copying has the high likelihood of leading to the flooding of the markets for the copyrighted works."
Meta's attorney, Kannon Shanmugam, reportedly argued that copyright owners are not entitled to protection from competition in the "marketplace of ideas." Chhabria responded, "But if I'm going to steal things from the marketplace of ideas in order to develop my own ideas, that's copyright infringement, right?"
Interestingly, Judge Chhabria also took issue with the plaintiffs' attorney, David Boies, regarding the lawsuit potentially lacking sufficient evidence to address the potential market impacts of Meta's alleged conduct.
"It seems like you're asking me to speculate that the market for Sarah Silverman's memoir will be affected by the billions of things that Llama [Meta's AI model] will ultimately be capable of producing," said Chhabria. "And it's just not obvious to me that that's the case."
Stay tuned as the case continues, and all parties faced with proper accountability.
Andy EdserAndy, a gaming enthusiast since the age of 12, has built countless PCs, attended numerous product launches, and reviewed every bit of gaming hardware his curious hands could get on. With a knack for opinions and a passion for writing, Andy serves as a hardware writer for PC Gamer, covering everything from best pre-built machines to great devices for mobile gaming.
- In 2025, the likelihood of Meta Platforms having to pay for using copyrighted material to train their AI models is increasing, as Judge Vince Chhabria appears less convinced by Meta's 'fair use' defense in the ongoing lawsuit.
- spite Meta's argument that their AI systems make 'fair use' of copyrighted material by studying it to generate 'transformative' content, Judge Chhabria expressed concerns about the potential flooding of the markets for the copyrighted works.
- Silverman, joined by two other authors, sued tech giants Meta Platforms and OpenAI in 2023, claiming they pirated their work to train AI language models without permission.
- Judge Chhabria, during a court hearing, questioned Meta's attorneys, expressing confusion over their stance that they don't need to pay a license to copyright holders for a product that could produce an infinite number of competing products.
- Technological advancements have not been without legal ramifications, as shown in the ongoing case between Sarah Silverman and Meta Platforms, where the use of AI-generated content raises concerns regarding the impact on copyright law's 'fair use' doctrine.
