PARIS (Reuters) – The main publication associations and French authors have filed a complaint against the giant of American technology Meta for having allegedly used content protected by copyright on a large scale without authorization to train its artificial intelligence systems (IA).
Meta representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The National Publishing Union (SNE), the main association of professional publication, the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC) and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL), which defends the interests of the authors, told a press conference on Wednesday that they had filed a complaint against the meta earlier this week before a Paris court for an alleged counterfeit and economic parasitism “.
The three associations believe that Meta, which has social networks Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, illegally used content protected by copyright to form its AI models.
“We are witnessing a monumental looting,” said Maia Bensimon, general delegate of Snac.
“It’s a bit of a Battle of David against Goliath,” said SNE director general, Renaud Lefebvre. “This is a procedure that serves as an example,” he added.
This is the first action of this type against an AI giant in France, but there is a wave of prosecution, particularly in the United States against Meta and other technological companies by authors, visual artists, music publishers and other copyright holders on the data used to train their generative AI systems.
In the United States, Meta is notably the target of a trial brought in 2023 by the American actress and author Sarah Silverman and other authors. The complainants maintain that Meta abused their books to form her large Llama linen.
The American novelist Christopher Farnsworth filed a similar complaint against Meta in October 2024.
OPENAI, the company behind the IA Chatgpt tool, also faces a series of proceedings similar to the United States, Canada and India.
(Report by Florence Loeve, writing by Dominique Vidalon; edition by Angus Macswan)
