Meta Trained Llama on Pirated Books — Trial Now Set for 2027
By Daniel Rao, TechPulse USA Meta spent years arguing that AI training data is just... out there. This week, the people who own the books decided to test that theory in the courtroom where it hurts most. Five of the world's biggest publishers — Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan and McGraw Hill — plus bestselling author Scott Turow have quietly moved their class-action copyright war against Meta into its decisive arena. On Thursday, they filed a motion asking that their case, freshly transferred to San Francisco, be handed to the one judge who has already shown he will not let Meta have fair use for free. Responses are due tomorrow. If the judge agrees, Meta's biggest copyright fight lands on the same docket as its first trial, now set for May 3, 2027. This is no longer a skirmish. It is the publishers' industry, with its lawyers and its catalogues, coming for the way Llama was built. Photo: The Phillip Burton Federal Building and US Courthouse in San Francisc...