Apple must answer in court to accusations that the company collected YouTube videos without permission in order to train generative AI models, a US federal judge has ruled. Those models can generate videos based on text descriptions.
The case was brought by Ted Entertainment, the company behind several YouTube channels, including h3h3 Productions, and Matt Fisher, who publishes golf videos via the channel MrShortGame Golf. They accuse Apple of violating the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Among other things, this law prohibits circumventing technical security measures that regulate access to digital content.
According to the plaintiffs, Apple used automated programmes to download videos. Virtual machines were said to have been deployed that regularly changed IP address to avoid detection and blocking. In this way, the company is alleged to have gained large-scale unauthorised access to videos.
Apple tried to have the case dismissed at an early stage. The company argued that YouTube videos are publicly accessible and that downloading them therefore does not automatically mean that technical access protections have been circumvented.
Judge Richard Seeborg rejected that argument. According to him, YouTube’s technical measures restrict access to the platform and to the streaming technology intended for it. Accessing videos in a different way can circumvent those measures and be in breach of YouTube’s terms of use.
The ruling does not mean that Apple has been found guilty. The judge has only determined that the case may proceed.
This is the third time a federal judge has granted Ted Entertainment permission to pursue similar claims against a technology company. Earlier this month, a similar lawsuit against ByteDance was allowed to go ahead. In August, a judge also ruled that the case against Snap could proceed.
In addition to Apple, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and Amazon have also been sued for allegedly unauthorised use of YouTube videos to train AI models. These cases are still pending before federal courts in California and the state of Washington.
Emerce
Ltd
