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In a case setting precedent in copyright law over the fair use of authors’ work in the development of generative AI tools, Paul, Weiss secured partial summary judgment on behalf of Meta Platforms, Inc.

In July 2023, a proposed class of authors filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Northern District of California, alleging that Meta illegally used their copyrighted books to train its large language models. Meta argued that using the books to train its models constituted fair use. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria granted Meta’s cross-motion for partial summary judgment, ruling that Meta’s use of the plaintiffs’ books was fair use under copyright law.

The court held that the plaintiffs could not prevail on the arguments and record they had presented. It found that Meta’s use was highly transformative, as training AI models serves a fundamentally different purpose than reading books for entertainment or education. While acknowledging that Meta’s commercial use of the copyrighted material weighed against fair use, Judge Chhabria concluded that this factor is less significant given the transformative nature of the copying. The court also rejected the plaintiffs’ market harm theories, finding that Meta’s model could reproduce only about 50 words from any plaintiff’s book and that the authors failed to present adequate evidence of market dilution from AI-generated competing works.

The Paul, Weiss team included litigation partners Kannon Shanmugam, Melinda Haag, Will Marks and Anna Gressel and counsel Marc Price Wolf.