Meta has been ordered to name executives who authorized torrenting for AI training, per a court ruling.

Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixon ruled that the company must clearly identify key decision-makers involved in the decision to pirate books from shadow libraries like Anna’s Archive and LibGen.

The order impacts a class action lawsuit led by book authors and a case from publisher Entrepreneur Media.

Following testimony from Meta staff who downloaded torrents, the court order could expose a wider range of supervisors, managers, and executives who allegedly greenlit the piracy. Meta had previously claimed that its initial efforts to compile massive AI datasets were managed through an informal approach where no one with authority made any decisions.

Authors and publishers have argued that Meta made a willful choice to induce infringement by downloading and illegally distributing their copyrighted works. They claim that torrenting depends on a swarm of users, so Meta could not have quickly downloaded 80.6 terabytes of data from LibGen or 35.7 terabytes through Anna’s Archive if the company wasn’t also seeding.

"Approval was thus required; Meta’s answer is that none occurred," Entrepreneur Media argued in the letter. The court order compels Meta to produce long-sought 'command history files for every server Meta used to torrent, including its virtual machines and AWS instances,' which could give authors the evidence they need to prove that Meta seeded certain works.

Meta failed to sway the court, as authors asked the company to identify each natural person who made, authorized, or approved any decision to obtain or download any Shadow Library Dataset containing their works. Meta claimed that plaintiffs were demanding it 'canvas every Meta employee who knew about the use of BitTorrent,' including anyone who ever spoke of torrenting.

The court ruled that Meta must answer questions about who 'made, authorized, or approved any decision to obtain or download the shadow libraries.' Meta and Entrepreneur Media’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.

Source: arstechnica