N.D. CAL.Court order
Judge orders Meta to identify who approved torrenting shadow libraries for AI training
A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco on October 19, 2026, ordered Meta to identify each person who made, authorized or approved decisions to obtain shadow-library datasets such as LibGen and Anna's Archive, including by BitTorrent. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson's order covers the authors' class action led by Richard Kadrey and suits by publishers including Entrepreneur Media that accuse Meta of training AI on pirated works.
Order (Digital Music News) → · Ars Technica
Key points
- Where a decision was collective, everyone in the group who took part must be identified, the judge wrote.Digital Music News
- Meta must also name those who decided whether or how to seed, or limit seeding, when torrenting LibGen Scimag and Anna's Archive.Digital Music News
- Meta had argued that early dataset acquisition was informal and that no one formally decided to torrent.Ars Technica
- The judge rejected Meta's offer to give only names, without roles and dates of involvement.Ars Technica
- Meta must also answer questions about pirated works that were not used for training.Ars Technica