Irish writers are threatening to take social media giant Meta to court in a ‘David and Goliath’ scale battle over the use of their work to develop artificial intelligence models.
A legal warning letter has been sent amid ongoing concerns about large firms using authors’ writing to ‘train’ and adapt Artificial Intelligence software.
Marie Jones and Martin Dillon are among the well known writers who are backing the move that is being lead by Belfast law firm KRW.
In a statement issued on Monday, KRW said they are acting “on behalf of a number of Irish writers who support taking legal action against Tech company META over the unauthorised reproduction, manipulation and commercial use of their literary works and personal data in the development and deployment of Meta’s generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) model Llama”.
The statement added: “They represent a broad spectrum of literary, artistic and journalistic travail. On Thursday 10 April 2025 we issued formal pre action correspondence on behalf of Belfast author Richard O’Rawe to Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd citing serious and ongoing breaches of copyright and data protection rights under Copyright legislation and GDPR Regulations respectively.
“From October 2022 tech giant Meta downloaded millions of writings from a shadow library known as LibGen which itself is subject to blocking orders within the UK. In turn Meta engaged in stripping copyright management information from these works before incorporating them into its AI model training Llama set.
“In doing so Meta systemically mine swept our clients’ copyrighted works to train its Llama AI for its own commercial advantage. At no time was any attempt made by Meta to seek the consent of our clients to access their work or even to consider licensing these works through legitimate channels. The only recourse for them is to seek damages for the unauthorised commercial exploitation of their works or in the alternative an account of their profits together with compensation for distress and non-material damage under GDPR.”
Stones In His Pockets author Marie Jones, said: “If you took someone’s physical property without their permission it’s a crime... why should someone’s intellectual property be treated differently.”
Adding his support for the legal initiative, acclaimed author Martin Dillon added: “This is an example of ‘economic piracy ‘of intellectual property rights and of copyright infringement’.”
Also supporting the case Award winning investigate journalist Trevor Birney, whose book about Sean Quinn was Meta accessed.
He said: “Authors sign contracts with publishers that provides both parties with security over the work. As a filmmaker, we option authors works through the proper channels, respecting the authorship and ownership. What Meta has done is pure theft. Nothing less. I’m under no illusion about the challenge my colleagues are undertaking. But a stand has to be taken.”
Ricky O’Rawe added: “There’s something disturbing and very intrusive in taking someone’s work without their permission. It’s quite shocking.”
Kevin Winters, solicitor at KRW LAW, said there is “clear evidence” elements of the development of Meta’s AI language models took place in Ireland and the UK.
He added: “These densely complex legal issues are already the subject of litigation in the American courts. There is clear evidence that elements of the development of Meta’s AI language models took place in Ireland and the UK as well. Over the years The High court in Belfast has proven to be an adept and far sighted forum to service some really challenging precedent setting legal action ranging from Troubles-related; historic abuse and Human Rights based legal agitation generally together with Defamation and social media litigation specifically.
“It’s now time to take a stand here and engage the insidious AI encroachment into writers hard earned work product. I think it’s fascinating to see one of the smallest jurisdictions in Europe host what will be a behemoth of legal battles. It’s truly of David and Goliath proportions.
“I commend this cohort of Irish writers and dramatists in taking such a courageous stance to try and preserve the integrity and independence of their artistic craft. From time immemorial Human theft of writers’ publications has always amounted to breach of copyright. Equally today it’s only but right that non - human misappropriation of writers work product should be subject to the highest judicial scrutiny.
“To that end we are also seeking an immediate injunction to halt that is really ongoing AI artistic larceny.”
KRW said their counsel for the case is Peter Girvan BL.
Meta have been contacted for comment, but had not responded at the time of the publication of this article.
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