Tech

Meta tries to scapegoat staff who downloaded torrents to spare execs

Read full article at source ↗

Based on a feed excerpt; full article content has not been acquired. Source evidence retrieved 20/10/2026, 20:28:24 UTC.

Briefings

Meta faces a discovery order requiring it to identify executives who authorized piracy of books from shadow libraries like Anna's Archive and LibGen. A Magistrate Judge in a class action lawsuit ordered Meta to name key decision-makers following testimony from staff who downloaded torrents. The company previously claimed its AI dataset management was an 'informal approach' with no authority figures, but the court ruling contradicts this by forcing a chain of command to be exposed.

Key points

• Meta was ordered to name executives who authorized decisions to pirate books from shadow libraries like Anna's Archive and LibGen.
• The ruling follows testimony from Meta staff who downloaded torrents, exposing supervisors and managers who allegedly greenlit piracy.

Context

This discovery order impacts a class action lawsuit raised by book authors and publisher Entrepreneur Media. The case involves Richard Kadrey and Sarah Silverman, who allege Meta's AI training data was obtained through unauthorized torrenting of copyrighted books.

Limitations

The evidence is limited to a single court discovery order and a class action lawsuit. The specific names of all authorized executives are not fully listed, and the timeline of the piracy events prior to the court order is not detailed.

Generated by Bittrees-hosted qwen35-2b sha256:aaf42c8b7c3c on 20/10/2026, 20:50:27 UTC. Based on publisher-provided feed evidence; may not cover the full original article. Check the source for details.

View archived briefing on IPFS
bafybeiflyxdmh4yrrsnz3jxneyy2hn34i7kweynyfezfxu7gj3weaumqiy