IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS—C.D. Cal.: YouTube content creators file class action suit against Runway AI for mass downloading of their works from YouTube, (Feb 24, 2026)
Law Firms Mentioned:Ahdoot and Wolfson PC
Organizations Mentioned:Ahdoot & Wolfson, PC | Runway AI, Inc.
By Kevin M. Finson, J.D.
The complaint alleges that Runway AI circumvented YouTube’s technological measures to control access by preventing the download of copies in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and violated the California Unfair Competition Law.
David Vance Gardner (Gardner), a YouTube content creator, brought suit on behalf of himself and others similarly situated against Runway AI, Inc. (Runway AI) in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Gardner alleged that Runway AI had circumvented YouTube’s technological measures in order to scrape huge number of videos from the YouTube website for the purpose of training its artificial intelligence products (Gardner v. Runway AI, Inc., No. 2:26-cv-01941 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 23, 2026)).
Gardner alleged he was the owner of “one or more” YouTube channels and created copyrighted audiovisual works published on that platform. He claimed that Runway AI used automated scrapers to obtain his and others’ videos from YouTube’s website in violation of YouTube’s terms of use, and used technological measures in order to train its “Gen-3” product, which specialized in generating multimedia content.
Gardner alleges that his works, among others, were uploaded to YouTube subject to YouTube’s terms of use and technological measures which prevented viewers from obtaining the actual media files: viewers could watch the videos subject to ads as applicable, but could not download a copy for themselves. Runway AI, however, was alleged to have used scraping technology to obtain copies of the creator’s multimedia files. Runway AI allegedly obtained these files for financial gain, using them to train its commercial AI systems. The content creators making up the putative class had not consented to such use and were not compensated for such use.
Gardner requests that the case continue as a class action and seeks declarative relief, statutory damages under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and California Unfair Competition Law, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees.
The Case is No. 2:26-cv-01941.
Judge: NA.
Attorneys: Tina Wolfson (Ahdoot and Wolfson PC) for David Vance Gardner.
Companies: Runway AI, Inc.
Cases: AINews Copyright TechnologyInternet CaliforniaNews