Naples author, others sue Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
A Naples best-selling author has joined five publishers in suing Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Scott Turow, author of thrillers like "Presumed Innocent," and others filed the class-action suit May 5 in New York federal court. Joining as plaintiffs are Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Elsevier and Cengage ― among some of the largest publishers in the U.S. The suit claims the tech giant ― now called Meta ― and its founder and chief executive of "copyright infringement based on Defendants’ unauthorized reproduction and distribution of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works through Meta’s sourcing of content ..." began the suit filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. "In their effort to win the AI 'arms race' and build a functional generative AI model, Defendants Meta and Zuckerberg followed their well-known motto: 'move fast and break things,'" the 65-page suit said. "They first illegally torrented millions of copyrighted books and journal articles from notorious pirate sites and downloaded unauthorized web scrapes of virtually the entire internet. They then copied those stolen fruits many times over to train Meta’s multi-billion-dollar generative AI system called Llama. "In doing so, Defendants engaged in one of the most massive infringements of copyrighted materials in history." The suit continued: "Defendants reproduced and distributed millions of copyrighted works without permission, without providing any compensation to authors or publishers, and with full knowledge that their conduct violated copyright law. Zuckerberg himself personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement." The suit took aim especially at the use of artificial intelligence that's becoming more common. Zuckerberg and Meta ignored the critical roles authors and publishers play "in creating, disseminating, and protecting literary works. Authors devote years to conceiving, writing, and refining their works," the suit said. In contrast, the suit said, "to build Llama, Defendants evaded the longstanding system that both respects copyrights and compensates authors and publishers." Representatives of Meta have not yet released a statement countering the allegations. The suit alleges that Meta's AI products have helped company profits. "Meta has predicted that by 2035, it will reap $460 billion to $1.4 trillion of revenue from its AI products, including Llama," the suit said. "That increased revenue will be earned off the backs of creators whom Meta has refused to compensate." The suit even quoted the U.S. Constitution. "Written works are vital to our society and culture. They educate and entertain, spark new questions and new worlds, evoke shared emotions and shared experiences, and give voice to the unheard," the suit said. "The Framers of the Constitution enshrined the copyright protection of written works in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, and they did so with an explicit purpose: '(t)o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.'" Turow is among best-known novelists in the U.S., ever since the release of his debut best-seller “Presumed Innocent,” in 1987. A practicing attorney and native of Chicago, Turow has been living part-time in Naples for years and the lawsuit lists him solely as a resident of Naples. Turow has penned 14 best-selling works of fiction and two nonfiction books. Some have been adapted into television projects and movies, including the 1990 hit film "Presumed Innocent" that starred Harrison Ford.
Source: Naples Daily News