Major Publishers Sue Meta for Using Books to Train AI
Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette and other publishers allege Meta pirated millions of copyrighted works to build its Llama AI model, escalating a legal fight over whether AI training qualifies as fair use.
May 5th 2026 · United States
Major publishers Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan and McGraw Hill, along with author Scott Turow, filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Meta Platforms in Manhattan federal court on May 5, accusing the tech giant of pirating millions of their books and journal articles to train its artificial intelligence model Llama. The publishers alleged that Meta used their copyrighted works without permission to develop its large language models, including popular novels such as "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin and "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown, as well as scientific articles and textbooks. The plaintiffs asked the court for permission to represent a broader class of copyright owners and sought unspecified monetary damages. Meta responded to the lawsuit by asserting that training AI on copyrighted material can qualify as fair use under existing law. A company spokesperson stated that AI is powering transformative innovations and creativity, and that courts have recognized fair use as a legitimate legal framework for AI training. The company pledged to fight the lawsuit aggressively. Maria Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, criticized Meta's practices, saying that mass-scale infringement should not be mistaken for public progress and that AI will never be properly realized if tech companies prioritize pirate sites over scholarship and imagination. The lawsuit represents a new front in the broader copyright battle between creators and technology companies over AI training, with dozens of authors, news outlets and visual artists having filed separate suits against companies including Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic. All pending cases are expected to center on whether AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by creating new, transformative content. The first two judges to consider similar cases issued conflicting rulings in 2025. Meanwhile, Amazon- and Google-backed Anthropic became the first major AI company to settle one of the cases, agreeing to pay a group of authors $1.5 billion to resolve a class-action lawsuit that could have resulted in significantly higher damages.