Another proposed class-action copyright lawsuit was filed against Meta Platforms. This time, filed by book author Christopher Farnsworth. The allegations in the complaint are similar to ones already made by other book authors, such as in the lawsuits brought by Richard Kadrey, Michael Chabon, and Mike Huckabee.
Those book author lawsuits against Meta have been consolidated in the Northern District of California before Judge Chhabria and are currently nearing the end of fact discovery, although plaintiffs’ attorney David Boies, who just joined the legal team, has requested additional time for discovery.
Christopher Farnsworth is represented by the same law firms and some of the attorneys who represent the plaintiffs book authors in Authors Guild v. OpenAI: Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP; and Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP. So, the law firms will now be litigating on both coasts in book author cases.
The plaintiff’s attorneys are: Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Daniel M. Hutchinson, Reilly T. Stoler, Ian R. Bensberg, Rachel Geman, LIEFF CABRASER HEIMMANN & BERNSTEIN, LLP.
Scott J. Sholder and CeCe M. Cole, COWAN DEBAETS ABRAHAM & SHEPPARD LLP.
The case is assigned to Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, who presides over the consolidated book author cases In re OpenAI ChatGPT Litigation. Not surprisingly, Judge Martinez-Olguin has referred this case to Judge Chhabria as a possible related case to the Richard Kadrey v. Meta cases.