Meta Must Face Adult Film Piracy Lawsuit as Court Denies Dismissal
The ruling allows a novel copyright case to proceed that could test whether systematic downloading of copyrighted material for AI training constitutes infringement, even when the defendant claims the activity was personal use.
Reporting from 1 sources: GIGAZINE.
A U.S. federal district court judge has denied Meta's motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by adult film producer Strike 3 Holdings, which alleges Meta illegally downloaded over 2,300 copyrighted videos via BitTorrent since 2018, potentially for AI training. All three claims-direct, vicarious, and contributory copyright infringement-will proceed to trial.
Strike 3 Holdings sued Meta in July 2025, alleging the company downloaded at least 2,396 copyright-protected adult videos via BitTorrent since 2018 and may have used them to train AI models. Meta moved to dismiss, arguing the claims relied only on IP addresses and that the downloads reflected personal use by employees, not corporate activity.
On June 11, 2026, U.S. District Judge Yumi K. Lee denied the motion, allowing all three claims-direct, vicarious, and contributory infringement-to proceed. Judge Lee noted that the act of copying via BitTorrent could itself constitute direct infringement, and that similar download patterns across 47 corporate IP addresses and 7 private ranges made it reasonable to infer an algorithmic process using keywords like "teen." Meta's argument that coincidental downloads by multiple individuals explained the pattern was deemed unlikely.
The court also rejected Meta's motion on indirect infringement, finding Strike 3 Holdings' allegation that Meta provided specific tools or services for infringement sufficient to proceed, despite a recent Supreme Court ruling raising the bar for ISP liability.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.