Meta: Pirated Adult Film Downloads Were For “Personal Use,” Not AI Training
looorg writes:
Meta: Pirated Adult Film Downloads Were For "Personal Use," Not AI Training.
[...] As the most prolific copyright litigant in the United States, the adult film producer has filed tens of thousands of lawsuits against alleged BitTorrent pirates. This summer it expanded its scope by taking aim at Meta.
[...] The adult producers discovered the alleged infringements after Meta's BitTorrent activity was revealed in a lawsuit filed by several book authors. In that case, Meta admitted that it obtained content from pirate sources.
[...] Meta clearly denies that the adult video downloads were used for AI purposes. Since there is no evidence that Meta directed this activity, it can't be held liable for direct copyright infringement.
The tech company doesn't just deny the allegations; it also offers an alternative explanation. Meta suggests that employees or visitors may have downloaded the pirated videos for personal use.
Meta denies torrenting porn to train AI, says downloads were for "personal use".
This week, Meta asked a US district court to toss a lawsuit alleging that the tech giant illegally torrented pornography to train AI.
The move comes after Strike 3 Holdings discovered illegal downloads of some of its adult films on Meta corporate IP addresses, as well as other downloads that Meta allegedly concealed using a "stealth network" of 2,500 "hidden IP addresses." Accusing Meta of stealing porn to secretly train an unannounced adult version of its AI model powering Movie Gen, Strike 3 sought damages that could have exceeded $350 million, TorrentFreak reported.
Filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Monday, Meta accused Strike 3 of relying on "guesswork and innuendo," while writing that Strike 3 "has been labeled by some as a 'copyright troll' that files extortive lawsuits." Requesting that all copyright claims be dropped, Meta argued that there was no evidence that the tech giant directed any of the downloads of about 2,400 adult movies owned by Strike 3-or was even aware of the illegal activity.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.