Apple Faces Legal Battle Over Alleged Use of Copyrighted Books in AI Training

Apple sued by authors over use of books in AI training

Sept 5 (Reuters) - Technology giant Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab was accused by authors in a lawsuit on Friday of illegally using their copyrighted books to help train its artificial intelligence systems, part of an expanding legal fight over protections for intellectual property in the AI era. The proposed class action, opens new tab, filed in the federal court in Northern California, said Apple copied protected works without consent and without credit or compensation. "Apple has not attempted to pay these authors for their contributions to this potentially lucrative venture," according to the lawsuit, filed by authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson. Apple and lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. The lawsuit is the latest in a wave of cases from authors, news outlets and others accusing major technology companies of violating legal protections for their works. Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Friday disclosed in a court filing in California that it agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action from a group of authors who accused the company of using their books to train its AI chatbot Claude without permission. Anthropic did not admit any liability in the accord, which lawyers for the plaintiffs called the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history. In June, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab was hit with a lawsuit by a group of authors who claimed the company used their books without permission to train its Megatron artificial intelligence model. Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab-backed OpenAI also have faced claims over the alleged misuse of copyrighted material in AI training. The lawsuit against Apple accused the company of using a known body of pirated books to train its "OpenELM" large language models. Hendrix, who lives in New York, and Roberson in Arizona, said their works were part of the pirated dataset, according to the lawsuit. Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Gregorio Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Apple accused of illegally training AI models on pirated books - 9to5Mac

A new proposed class action suit was filed in the federal court in Northern California today, accusing Apple of illegally using books to train its AI models. Here are the details. As reported by Reuters, authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Robertson are accusing Apple of using a pirated dataset, in which their work was included. From the lawsuit: "But Apple is building part of this new enterprise using Books3, a dataset of pirated copyrighted books that includes the published works of Plaintiffs and the Class. Apple used Books3 to train its OpenELM language models. Apple also likely trained its Foundation Language Models using this same pirated dataset." The accusation is based on details provided by Apple on its paper about OpenELM, an open-source model the company made available on Hugging Face last year. The paper mentions RedPajama as one of the datasets used in the model. RedPajama, in turn, uses a dataset called Books3, which, as the lawsuit claimed, is "a known body of pirated books." The authors are requesting the court to allow the lawsuit to proceed as a Class action against Apple, and ask for the following remedies following a jury trial: Coincidentally (or maybe not), the lawsuit comes on the heels of a record $1.5 billion settlement made by Anthropic in a very similar case. Interestingly, Meta faced a similar trial recently, but the case went its way, as the judge decided that its use of copyrighted books to train its AI models fell under fair use, a sentiment echoed recently by President Trump: "You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for. (...) You just can't do it, because it's not doable." Do you think authors should be compensated for the use of their books to train AI models? Let us know in the comments.

After Anthropic and Midjourney, Now Apple Faces Copyright Lawsuit Over AI

The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial and monetary damages A fresh lawsuit was filed against Apple on Friday over allegedly training its artificial intelligence (AI) on copyrighted books. Two authors have alleged that the Cupertino-based tech giant used datasets containing pirated versions of their books to train the OpenELM AI model, which the company released as an open-source model last year. This particular large language model (LLM) also came under fire in 2024, after a report claimed that a part of its dataset contained the video subtitle data of YouTube. Authors File Lawsuit Against Apple Over AI Training The lawsuit, filed in the US federal court in Northern California on Friday, proposes a class action suit against Apple. Authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Robertson have accused the tech giant of using illegally obtained copyrighted books to train its LLM, OpenELM. As per the lawsuit, Apple's model card of OpenELM, which was added to Hugging Face, highlights that one of the datasets used to train the model includes RedPajama. The company obtained from the Internet, where many annotators release public datasets with license-free content. RedPajama, based on the allegations, contained a dataset called Books3, which is claimed to be "a known body of pirated books." The authors claim that their books were also part of that dataset. The plaintiffs are now requesting the court to let the lawsuit continue as a class action against the iPhone maker. Following a jury trial, the suit also seeks class statutory damages, compensatory damages, restitution, disgorgement, and other forms of relief. It also asked the court to order the destruction of any of Apple's AI models that were trained on this data. Notably, last year, the company had said that OpenELM does not power either its AI features under the Apple Intelligence branding or other machine learning features in its devices. Apple highlighted that the model was created as a "contribution to the research community." Separately, Anthropic disclosed in a court filing on Friday that it has now agreed to pay $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 13,200 crore) to settle the ongoing class action from a group of authors. These authors had sued the AI startup for training its AI models on their copyrighted work without consent. Notably, the Claude-maker did not admit any liability as part of the settlement.

Apple Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Reported Use Of Copyrighted Books To Train AI - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Apple Inc. AAPL was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Friday alleging the tech giant illegally used copyrighted books without permission to train its artificial intelligence systems. Authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson filed the complaint in Northern California federal court, claiming Apple copied protected works without consent, credit, or compensation, Reuters reported. Check out the current price of APPL stock here. The lawsuit specifically targets Apple's "OpenELM" large language models, accusing the company of using a known dataset of pirated books. Both plaintiffs' works allegedly appeared in the unauthorized training materials. Industry-Wide Copyright Battle Intensifies The tech giant's lawsuit contributes to the rising number of legal challenges over AI training practices in the industry. Microsoft Corp. MSFT faced similar claims in June regarding its Megatron AI model, while Meta Platforms Inc. META and Microsoft-backed OpenAI continue defending against copyright infringement allegations. See Also: Scott Bessent Says 'Fed Must Change Course' As Trump Weighs Jerome Powell Successors, Treasury Secretary Calls For 'Nonpartisan Review' This legal trend reflects broader industry tensions as AI companies struggle to balance innovation with intellectual property rights. Anthropic Settlement Sets $1.5 Billion Precedent The lawsuit comes days after Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG-backed Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle similar copyright claims. The settlement provides $3,000 per book for approximately 500,000 titles used to train Anthropic's Claude chatbot. Plaintiffs' lawyers called it the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in AI history, setting a precedent for future cases. Mixed Legal Outcomes Shape AI Landscape While some companies face substantial settlements, others have secured favorable rulings. Meta recently won summary judgment when a federal judge ruled its AI training practices constitute fair use under copyright law. The judge found no meaningful evidence of market dilution from Meta's use of copyrighted materials. With a strong Value Score of 72.35, Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AAPL has a positive price trend across all time frames. Know how its momentum lines up with other well-known names. Read Next: 'You Don't Want The Money To Grow?' -- Dave Ramsey Stunned As Caller With $880,000 Saved Fears A Higher Tax Bracket Image via Shutterstock Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. AAPLApple Inc$239.23-0.23%Stock Score Locked: Edge Members Only Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Unlock RankingsEdge RankingsMomentum47.59Growth29.94Quality72.35Value8.65Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewAMZNAmazon.com Inc$232.09-1.52%GOOGAlphabet Inc$235.001.01%GOOGLAlphabet Inc$234.701.03%METAMeta Platforms Inc$749.750.15%MSFTMicrosoft Corp$495.25-2.50%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Apple sued by authors over use of books in AI training

(Reuters) -Technology giant Apple was accused by authors in a lawsuit on Friday of illegally using their copyrighted books to help train its artificial intelligence systems, part of an expanding legal fight over protections for intellectual property in the AI era. The proposed class action, filed in the federal court in Northern California, said Apple copied protected works without consent and without credit or compensation. "Apple has not attempted to pay these authors for their contributions to this potentially lucrative venture," according to the lawsuit, filed by authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson. Apple and lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. The lawsuit is the latest in a wave of cases from authors, news outlets and others accusing major technology companies of violating legal protections for their works. Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Friday disclosed in a court filing in California that it agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action from a group of authors who accused the company of using their books to train its AI chatbot Claude without permission. Anthropic did not admit any liability in the accord, which lawyers for the plaintiffs called the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history. In June, Microsoft was hit with a lawsuit by a group of authors who claimed the company used their books without permission to train its Megatron artificial intelligence model. Meta Platforms and Microsoft-backed OpenAI also have faced claims over the alleged misuse of copyrighted material in AI training. The lawsuit against Apple accused the company of using a known body of pirated books to train its "OpenELM" large language models. Hendrix, who lives in New York, and Roberson in Arizona, said their works were part of the pirated dataset, according to the lawsuit. (Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Gregorio)