Judge dismisses 3D artist's DMCA claims against Meta over AI training; leave to replead granted

What happened

In Beaulier v. Meta Platforms, Inc. (N.D. Cal., 3:26-cv-02632-CRB), professional 3D artist Austin Beaulier -- who publishes models under Creative Commons licenses on Sketchfab with a "NoAI" tag -- sued on behalf of a class of creators alleging Meta downloaded millions of 3D models (traced via an academic dataset) and converted them into AI training inputs, stripping attribution, licensing and other copyright management information (CMI) in the process.

The district court granted Meta's motion to dismiss both DMCA claims without prejudice, with leave to replead (order filed August 26, 2026):

• Section 1202(b)(1) (intentional CMI removal): the court found the NoAI tag and licensing metadata constituted CMI, the CMI was removed, and Meta had grounds to know -- but Beaulier had not alleged the removal was "intentional." Meta's uniform process converted 3D formats to make them usable for AI training, not to strip CMI, so the removal was more an "unintended side effect" than a targeted act.
• Section 1202(b)(3) (distribution of CMI-stripped works): the court held "distribute" means transfer to the public by sale or transfer of ownership; Beaulier alleged only internal use of CMI-stripped models within training datasets, which did not satisfy the distribution element.

Scope note

This is a motion-to-dismiss ruling, not a finding of liability. The dismissal was without prejudice and Beaulier filed an amended complaint; Meta moved to dismiss the amended claims on October 21, 2026 (per MLex summary; paywalled, not independently verified).