Dutch writers' unions launch legal battle against Meta over AI training

Dutch organizations Lira, the Auteursbond, and the NVJ are initiating legal action against big tech companies to protect the rights of freelance writers, journalists, and translators. The groups are seeking a collective agreement to ensure fair compensation, transparency, and control over creative works used to train AI language models.

The organizations have specifically summoned Meta to stop using texts obtained through ‘shadow libraries’—unauthorized online collections of copyrighted books and texts. Following an unsatisfactory response from Meta, the groups are preparing a collective lawsuit to request a judicial ruling that training AI models on works from these libraries is prohibited, and to prevent Meta from offering AI models developed through such methods.