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Ars Technica · October 21, 2026 · On the brief until November 4, 2026

Meta tries to scapegoat staff who downloaded torrents to spare execs

Intellectual Property LawCorporate Law
THE AI ANGLE
Driving the unauthorized download of copyrighted books for model training

A federal judge ordered Meta to identify the executives who authorized downloading copyrighted books from shadow libraries. Meta must also produce server command logs to reveal whether its systems seeded pirated files. The ruling limits corporate efforts to shield leaders by attributing data collection to informal staff actions.

Summary written by AI Business Lens with an AI model from the article at arstechnica.com. It is not the article, and the publisher has not reviewed it. For publishers.

THE TEACHING ANGLE
The dispute highlights whether informal corporate decision-making can shield executives from contributory copyright liability.

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