Copyright infringement: Clare et al. v. Meta Platforms (Federal proceeding, national class action Quebec)

What is the lawsuit about?

The lawsuit is against Meta Platforms Inc. (“Meta”). The plaintiffs, Kerry Clare, Arianne Des Rochers, and Steve Burrows, are Canadian authors who hold Canadian copyright in their works. Ms. Clare and Mr. Burrows are novelists. Ms. Des Rochers is a literary translator and academic.

The plaintiffs allege that Meta infringed their copyright by downloading or torrenting their copyrighted works as part of a database of pirated works that Meta then used to train a large-language model (“LLM”), an artificial-intelligence product.

The claim was issued in Canada’s Federal Court which has jurisdiction over copyright infringement matters.

What is the status of the lawsuit?

The plaintiffs started the lawsuit on April 14, 2025. The case has not been certified as a class action.

Who are the proposed class members?

The proposed class is defined as:

All copyright holders resident in Canada, excluding residents of the Province of Quebec, whose copyrighted works were downloaded and/or torrented by Meta and used as training data for Meta’s LLaMA language models.

How can I get more information about the lawsuit?

You are encouraged to contact the lawyers acting for the class at AIClaim@prrr.com. A copy of the statement of claim is available on the documents tab of this website.