Publishers & Scott Turow Sue Meta, Alleging Zuckerberg Ordered Pirated Books to Train Llama

Copyright law has repeatedly buckled when new technology makes copying effortless. Napster’s 1999–2001 music-sharing frenzy, Google’s 2004 Book-Scan project, and Sony’s 1984 Betamax victory each forced courts to redefine ‘fair use’. The Meta suit underscores a century-long trend: each major information platform—radio in the 1920s, cable TV in the 1970s, search engines in the 2000s, now generative AI—initially grabs content first, argues public benefit later. What is novel here is the scale (hundreds of terabytes) and the allegation that a single executive personally overrode licensing markets, echoing early Standard Oil tactics of vertical integration. On a 100-year horizon, the case may decide whether creative IP remains a licensable commodity or is relegated to raw data for machine learning, reshaping incentives for human authors much as the 1710 Statute of Anne once did for printers and writers.