57 authors sue Meta, alleging Llama and Muse were trained on pirated copies and scanned books

What happened

Daniel José Older and 56 co-plaintiffs filed a four-count complaint on 19 October 2026 in the Northern District of California (No. 3:26-cv-12115) against Meta Platforms, Inc. They allege Meta copied their works from shadow libraries to train its Llama models, bought physical books in bulk from around mid-2025, scanned them and ran them through optical character recognition to train its Muse models in an operation the complaint calls Project Vellum, and removed copyright management information.

What the plaintiffs ask for

The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and say they elect not to proceed as a class action, so each can seek individualized statutory damages. The complaint names only Meta as defendant.

Status

The case was referred to Judge Vince Chhabria to consider whether it is related to Kadrey v. Meta, and was related and reassigned on 28-29 October 2026. The allegations have not been proven in court.