# US Court Orders Meta to Identify Data Decisions in AI Copyright Case

> US court forces Meta to name all who approved pirated book data for AI training.
- Title: US Court Orders Meta to Identify Data Decisions in AI…
- Summary: US court forces Meta to name all who approved pirated book data for AI training. US court orders Meta to identify individuals who approved obtaining pirated…
- Keywords: us court, meta, ai training data, pirated books, shadow libraries, bit torrent, llama, mark zuckerberg, richard kadrey, sarah silverman, entrepreneur media, libgen
- Source: BigGo Finance — https://finance.biggo.com/news/00b9c3b1-01b1-4138-9f55-2aa8338b9a8c
- Author: BigGo Finance
- Published: 2026-10-21T05:35:16+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: us court, meta, ai training data, pirated books, shadow libraries, bit torrent, llama, mark zuckerberg, richard kadrey, sarah silverman, entrepreneur media, libgen
## Court order
US Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson ordered Meta to identify all who approved obtaining pirated books from shadow libraries and BitTorrent.
## Data volumes
Plaintiffs allege Meta obtained 80.6 terabytes from LibGen and 35.7 terabytes from Anna's Archive.
## Meta's defense
Meta claimed its early AI data buildout was informal with no authorized decision-makers.
## Court rejection
Hixson rejected Meta's argument that decisions were made only technically by employees.
## Decision-making requirement
Even team decisions require naming all individuals involved in approving data sources.
## Internal messages
Plaintiffs cite internal messages showing decisions escalated to Mark Zuckerberg.
## Unused data
Court seeks explanation for handling works downloaded but never used in model training.
## Key takeaway

US court orders Meta to identify individuals who approved obtaining pirated books from shadow libraries for AI training.