Copyright VICE
Two adult entertainment companies say Meta’s appetite for information has gotten a little kinky. Strike 3 Holdings and Counterlife Media have filed a $359 million lawsuit alleging that Meta illegally downloaded and seeded torrents of nearly 2,400 porn videos to train its artificial intelligence systems. Meta, naturally, argues that no! No! That porn was, uh…it was for personal use! Yeah, it was for…me, and not for large-scale copyright infringement! Only in the world of AI algorithm training can you claim that you were torrenting 2,400 porn videos for personal use and have that seem like the lesser of two evils. Videos by VICE The lawsuit, filed in July, accuses Meta of “willfully and intentionally” pirating titles from Strike 3’s adult brands, which include Blacked, Tushy, Vixen, Tushy Raw, Slayed, Blacked Raw, and my favorite name of the bunch—Deeper., with a period at the end. The companies even suggest Meta might be cooking up a secret porn-generating AI model, possibly a not-safe-for-work version of its upcoming video generator, Movie Gen. Strike 3 is currently going through a lawsuit-happy phase, suing anyone and anything that infringes on its copyright, including its own fans. The companies become so synonymous with copyright lawsuits that Google search results for “Strike 3 copyright lawsuits” bring up law firms advertising help specifically for people being sued by Strike 3. There’s a whole legal cottage industry being built around Strike 3 lawsuits. Meta Says the 2,400 Porn Videos They Torrented Were for Personal Use, Not Training AI The plaintiffs say they have evidence: 47 IP addresses linked to Meta that allegedly downloaded their films. Meta’s motion to dismiss the case calls Strike 3’s torrent-tracking “guesswork and innuendo” and argues the supposed downloads, which are roughly 22 per year, are too few to have any use in training AI. If anything, the company says, that pattern looks less like corporate malfeasance and more like “private personal use.” Meta is claiming that some of its employees are downloading and possibly masturbating to porn at work. Again, this is probably the most favorable position to take when the only other option is admitting that your company is stealing other people’s work to be able to auto-generate your own version of it. The lawsuit even singles out an individual to ensure that someone gets thoroughly embarrassed here. In this case, it’s the father of a Meta contractor whose home IP address allegedly downloaded 97 videos. Strike 3 suggests this links Meta to more infringement. Meta counters that it only proves someone’s dad is super into porn and has no VPN.
