Case Status
The Complaint was filed on May 5, 2026, and a jury trial was demanded. The Court has not yet set a date for the trial of this matter.
Please check this website periodically as it will be updated as the litigation progresses.
CASES
Meta Generative AI Copyright Litigation
Case Overview
Keller Rohrback filed a class action on behalf of five major publishers and a best-selling author against Meta Platforms, Inc. and its Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (“Defendants”) for their willful infringement of millions of copyrighted works.
Plaintiffs in the case are Elsevier Inc.; Cengage Learning, Inc.; Hachette Book Group, Inc.; Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC d/b/a Macmillan Publishers; McGraw Hill LLC; and author Scott Turow.
The case is a watershed moment in AI copyright infringement litigation. It is brought by academic, education, and trade publishers and the authors they represent to hold Defendants accountable for their flagrant disregard of copyright law.
As detailed in the complaint, Plaintiffs contend that Meta and Zuckerberg knowingly chose to use pirated materials rather than license books and journals from publishers and authors such as Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs allege Zuckerberg and other Meta executives authorized Meta’s engineers to torrent reams of copyrighted works despite internal concerns about violating the law. This conduct, Plaintiffs allege, has harmed authors and publishers by undermining licensing markets, displacing sales, and allowing AI-generated outputs to compete with human-created books, articles, and educational materials. Plaintiffs seek to represent a nationwide class of copyright holders whose works were allegedly copied and used to train Meta’s AI systems.
The complaint asserts claims for direct and contributory copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, as well as violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act relating to the removal or alteration of copyright management information. Plaintiffs seek damages, injunctive relief, disgorgement of profits, and attorneys’ fees and costs, among other relief.
Keller Rohrback represents Plaintiffs along with co-counsel O+Z, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
You may review the Class Action Complaint in the Case Documents section below.
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