California( The COW News Digital) Two leading adult film production companies have filed a lawsuit against technology giant Meta, accusing it of illegally downloading over 2,000 copyrighted adult films to train its artificial intelligence models.
The lawsuit, filed in a California court, alleges that Meta deliberately accessed and downloaded at least 2,396 copyrighted films since 2018 without authorization. According to the companies, the pirated content was used to train Meta’s AI platforms, including its large language model “LLaMA” and its experimental video tool “Meta Movie Gen.”
The complaint claims that Meta knowingly exploited “backdoor methods” to obtain copyrighted materials and bypass legal licensing requirements. Specifically, the lawsuit accuses Meta of using BitTorrent’s “tit-for-tat” algorithm, which rewards users who share content with faster download speeds. By participating in peer-to-peer transfers, Meta allegedly obtained the pirated films to feed into its AI systems.
Torrent Freak, a publication that monitors digital piracy, reported that each of the companies faced an estimated loss of $150,000 per pirated film. Based on these figures, the lawsuit seeks damages that could reach as high as $359 million.
“This is not just about piracy—it’s about a multi-billion-dollar tech company deliberately stealing intellectual property to fuel its AI ambitions,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a statement. They argue that Meta’s alleged conduct represents a direct violation of copyright law and an intentional disregard for creative industries.
Meta has not yet issued a public response to the lawsuit. However, the case is expected to draw widespread attention, given the ongoing debates surrounding the ethics of AI training and the use of copyrighted material. Legal experts note that the outcome could have far-reaching consequences for the broader tech sector, where companies increasingly rely on large datasets to build and refine machine learning systems.
Intellectual property disputes related to AI are becoming more common, with artists, publishers, and film studios raising concerns about unauthorized data scraping. If proven, the case against Meta could set a precedent for how courts handle copyright infringement in the context of artificial intelligence development.
For now, the lawsuit underscores the growing tensions between creative industries seeking to protect their content and technology companies pushing the boundaries of AI innovation.
