Meta Faces Legal Challenge by French Publishers Over AI Training
www.bnnbloomberg.ca
French publishers and authors are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for copyright infringement, accusing the tech giant of using their books to train its generative AI.

French publishers and authors are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for copyright infringement, accusing the tech giant of using their books to train its generative artificial intelligence model without authorization.

  • General_Effort@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    1 day ago

    I guess my post was too long. Yes, France could enforce a judgment against Meta by leaning on the French division of Meta. The question is, on what legal basis this would happen.

    They are suing because of something that happened in the US, right? What argument is there to apply French law?

    That’s not merely politically contentious. It is explicitly against internation law; treaties that France has signed.

    • biofaust@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Since Meta operates in France, it is being punished for something that happened in France. Legal representatives of the company as a whole are present in the EU. Divisions are not relevant to this discussion.

      • General_Effort@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        Is the argument that something that a multinational corporation does in one country, happens in all countries where the corporation is present? There’s no way that would stand up in court.

              • General_Effort@lemmy.worldEnglish
                12·
                1 day ago

                They follow French law in France and US law in the US. How else could it work?

                They can’t choose to apply US labor law in France. Do you think they can be made to follow French labor law in Silicon Valley?

                • biofaust@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  11·
                  1 day ago

                  I bring you the example of the Territorial Scope of the GDPR since it is the one I am most acquainted with:

                  • This Regulation applies to the processing of personal data in the context of the activities of an establishment of a controller or a processor in the Union, regardless of whether the processing takes place in the Union or not.

                  • This Regulation applies to the processing of personal data of data subjects who are in the Union by a controller or processor not established in the Union, where the processing activities are related to:

              the offering of goods or services, irrespective of whether a payment of the data subject is required, to such data subjects in the Union; or

              the monitoring of their behaviour as far as their behaviour takes place within the Union.

                  • This Regulation applies to the processing of personal data by a controller not established in the Union, but in a place where Member State law applies by virtue of public international law.

                  Similar articles are there for the AI Act (which got JD Vance to talk shit about the EU on the 11th February) and the Product Liability Directive.

                  This is the reality we live in. Up to you to accept it or not.

                  • General_Effort@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    1·
                    1 day ago

                    GDPR is not copyright, despite all similarities. I assume that you accept that copyright does not work like that, since you are changing the subject.

                    Note that the GDPR does not claim to be applicable in third countries; ie outside the territory where EU law is enforced. It only seeks to regulate dealings of outside parties with people in the EU. Even that can’t be practically enforced, usually. Once data leaves the EU, there isn’t much EU governments can do about it, which is why the GDPR has serious rules about data transfers to third countries. (That’s a problem for the fediverse.)

    • banana_lama@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      Did they deploy their AI in Europe? The AI trained on stolen data? It’s like saying that you pirated a Disney movie in Europe and are selling derivative work from that in the US

      • General_Effort@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        Did they deploy their AI in Europe?

        That’s a good question. I just checked with Meta’s website. It says Meta AI is “not available” in my country, which is in the EU.