Two new author suits against Meta allege scanning lawfully owned physical books is itself infringement

What happened

Two new copyright suits against Meta were filed around October 18, 2026: *Older v. Meta*, brought by 57 book authors led by Daniel Jose Older, and *Winspear v. Meta*. Both are expected before Judge Chhabria, who is already handling Meta copyright-training cases.

The new theory

Beyond the familiar claim that Meta trained on pirated books obtained via torrent libraries, both complaints allege that Meta's scanning of physical books it lawfully owns is itself copyright infringement. The reporting notes this physical-scanning theory has been reached by only one federal court: Judge Alsup in *Bartz v. Anthropic*, which held the scanning to be fair use.

Status

These are new complaints: the plaintiffs allege infringement and ask the court to rule. No judge has ruled on either suit.