IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Meta accused of pirating adult film content to train AI models, (Jul 30, 2025)

By Cheryl Beise, J.D.

Meta allegedly used BitTorrent protocols to download and distribute adult movies to train Movie Gen and LLaMa.

Adult film producers Strike 3 Holdings, LLC, and CounterLife Media, LLC, have accused Meta Platforms, Inc., of infringing copyrights in “at least 2,396 movies,” by downloading and distributing adult films via BitTorrent protocols for the purpose of training Meta’s AI models, including Movie Gen and Large Language Model (LLaMA), a new complaint alleges (Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 4:25-cv-06213-KAW (N.D. Cal. July 23, 2025)).

Strike 3 Holdings and CounterLife Media distribute adult films through several adult content websites and through the Vixen streaming platform, which collectively experience 25 million unique monthly visitors. Strike 3 is the most prolific copyright litigant in the country, suing individuals who pirate Strike 3 content through BitTorrent protocols.

The plaintiffs claim that Meta has infringed at least 2,396 copyrighted movies. “Using the BitTorrent protocol, Defendant is committing rampant copyright infringement by both downloading Plaintiffs’ Works as well as engaging in methodical and persistent distribution of those Works to others,” the complaint states. “Defendant also distributes Plaintiffs’ content on BitTorrent in order to capitalize on the reciprocal, ‘tit-for-tat’ mechanism embedded within the BitTorrent Protocol.” Meta allegedly distributed the plaintiffs’ works after it received a full copy of the motion picture files from BitTorrent, for days, weeks, or months. Meta purportedly engaged various companies, individuals, or firms to participate as co-conspirators in the infringement of the plaintiffs’ works. “

Although Meta may have intentionally limited seeding of large amounts of content it sourced from BitTorrent, Meta hand-picked Plaintiffs’ Works for intense periods of distribution,” the complaint states.

The complaint points out that in one lawsuit filed by authors, Meta recently admitted to obtained through BitTorrent to train its LLaMA platforms. See Kadrey v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 23-3417, (N.D. Cal. July 7, 2025). “Internal documents and court filings revealed that Meta employees and agents downloaded over 81.7 terabytes of pirated books and academic papers using BitTorrent protocols,” according to the complaint.

Upon learning of Meta’s use of BitTorrent, the plaintiffs researched its archive of recorded infringement captured by its proprietary VXN Scan and Cross Reference tools, and found 47 IP addresses identified as owned by Facebook that had infringed the plaintiffs’ copyright works. Geolocation technology by Maxmind Inc. confirmed that the IP addresses belonged to Meta.

The complaint alleges that Meta intentionally targeted the plaintiffs’ high resolution unique adult content for training its AI models. “Plaintiffs’ motion pictures provide a distinct visual model of human form, motion, and interaction with technically rich diverse video quality, containing real-world data, something that is rarely found elsewhere on the Internet,” according to the complaint. “Meta’s AI programs will soon be able to produce motion pictures that look as real as Plaintiffs’ Works, and without the significant costs, time, care, and expense that Plaintiffs invest into their motion pictures.”

The plaintiffs assert claims for willful direct and secondary copyright infringement. They seek injunctive relief, statutory damages, attorney fees and costs.

The Case is No. 4:25-cv-06213-KAW.

Judge: Westmore, K.

Attorneys: Christian Waugh (Waugh PLLC) for Strike 3 Holdings, LLC and CounterLife Media, LLC.

Companies: Strike 3 Holdings, LLC; CounterLife Media, LLC; Meta Platforms, Inc.

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