French publishers are coming for Meta’s AI training data
Matt V
March 13, 2025
META
France’s top publishing and author associations have filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the tech giant of using copyrighted content without permission to train its AI models.
The National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of Men Letters (SGDL) claim Meta has copied their work on a massive scale, calling it copyright infringement and economic “parasitism.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Paris court, is the first of its kind in France against an AI company.
However, similar cases are popping up worldwide.
Here’s what’s happening:
French publishers claim Meta used copyrighted works without approval to train AI.
The lawsuit follows a growing wave of legal action in the U.S. and beyond.
OpenAI and other AI companies are also under legal pressure over training data use.
France says: “NON!”
In the U.S., Meta is already facing legal action from authors, including Sarah Silverman and Christopher Farnsworth, who claim their books were used without permission to train its Llama AI model.
Other AI firms, such as OpenAI, are also being sued in multiple countries over how they collect training data.
Meta really said “finders keepers” with copyrighted books.