Book author Jacqueline Winspear, the creator of the popular Maisie Dobbs series, along with 59 other book authors, wasted no time in suing Meta not only for its old LlaMa models but also for its new Muse models.
What’s different about this lawsuit is that, on top of alleging infringement in the torrenting of digital copies from shadow libraries (currently as issue in Kadrey v. Meta as to the alleged distribution side), the Complaint alleges that Meta’s scanning of physical books that it lawfully owns is also infringement.
The only federal court to consider the physical scanning issue, Judge Alsup, held that it was a fair use in Bartz v. Anthropic, while he rejected fair use in the acquisition of copies from shadow libraries at least on Meta’s motion for summary judgment: “As a result, Anthropic’s format-change from print library copies to digital library copies was transformative under fair use factor one. Anthropic was entitled to retain a copy of these works in a print format. It retained them instead in a digital format, easing storage and searchability. And, the further copies made therefrom for purposes of training LLMs were themselves transformative for that further reason, as above.” Bartz Order on Fair Use, at 17-18.
Meta revealed its Project Vellum during discovery in the cluster of cases now related to Kadrey v. Meta: “Def. Meta Platforms, Inc.’s Second Supp. Resps. & Objs. to Pl.’s First Set of Interrogs. at 17–18, Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 3:26-cv-02333-VC (N.D. Cal. Sept. 4, 2026), filed as ECF No. 140-6 (Sept. 12, 2026) (hereinafter “Meta Interrog. Resps.”).”
Winspear filed her Complaint in the Northern District of California, where it will likely be assigned to Judge Chhabria, who presides over all the book author and publisher lawsuits against Meta.
By my unofficial count, Meta now faces 17 copyright lawsuits related to its AI models, although some are consolidated or related:
This the 149th copyright lawsuit against an AI company in the United States. 150 is up next.
Here’s the Complaint’s allegations:
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