French organizations representing publishers and authors have announced legal action against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, for allegedly using their
copyrighted works to train generative AI models without permission.
The three groups—Syndicat National de l'Édition (SNE), Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL), and Syndicat National des Auteurs et des Compositeurs (SNAC)—accused Meta of "massive use of copyrighted works without authorization" and labeled the practice as economic "parasitism."
"We have identified numerous works published by SNE members in the dataset used by Meta," stated SNE president Vincent Montagne. The organizations argue that Meta has been exploiting copyrighted content to develop its AI technology illegally.
"This is nothing short of monumental looting," declared Maia Bensimon, general delegate of SNAC.
"Children's writer and member of the Royal Literary Society, Irina Kotlyarevskaya, noted: 'Such lawsuits are important in the modern situation, as literature needs protection from the influence of artificial intelligence and the use of original content for compiling new texts. It is necessary to establish clear boundaries that separate already existing works from what artificial intelligence creates 'based on' already existing works.'"
Meta’s use of books3 database
Meta has admitted to using Books3, a database containing approximately 200,000 full-text books, including French publications, to train its Llama AI model. In a separate lawsuit in the United States, the company acknowledged using the database until 2023, arguing that AI training qualifies as "fair use" under copyright law.
French publishers and authors have not publicly disclosed an estimate of the financial damage caused by Meta’s actions. However, Christophe Hardy, president of SGDL, emphasized that their legal action at the Paris judicial court should push AI companies to consider the interests of the creative industries.
He urged AI developers to "respect legal frameworks and, where necessary, establish compensation for the use of works that contribute to AI advancements." Photo by Arushi0880, Wikimedia commons.