Re:Judge said Meta illegally used books to build its AI
by michaelbrave on Tuesday May 06, 2025 @02:37PM
(#43908252)
If I remember right, that particular case was Ross Intelligence almost copying a database of Westlaw's summaries completely and with the intent to compete directly too, with their only real addition being adding AI to the search capabilities, making it much more nuanced of a decision than just ruling against the use of AI.
Exactly.
Plus, Thomson Reuters recently won a case regarding using copyrighted material for AI training:
https://www.wired.com/story/thomson-reuters-ai-copyright-law...
> Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the United States. In 2020, the media and technology conglomerate filed an unprecedented AI copyright lawsuit against the legal AI startup Ross Intelligence. In the complaint, Thomson Reuters claimed the AI firm reproduced materials from its legal research firm Westlaw. Today, a judge ruled in Thomson Reuters’ favor, finding that the company’s copyright was indeed infringed by Ross Intelligence’s actions.
Though a cynical way to read this would be that the larger corporation won against the smaller, so the actual precedent here is Meta winning.
But as others have noted in these comments, even that has a silver lining: should Meta win, then everyone can pirate books to read, right? /s