- By Shivangi Sharma
- Mon, 03 Nov 2025 03:35 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Meta is facing heightened scrutiny after adult film studio Strike 3 Holdings filed a major copyright infringement lawsuit, alleging the tech giant secretly downloaded thousands of copyrighted pornographic films to train its artificial intelligence systems. The studio, known for producing high-quality adult content, claims downloads were routed through a “stealth network” of more than 2,500 hidden IP addresses and is demanding over USD 350 million in damages.
Strike 3’s Accusations And Timeline
According to reports from Ars Technica and TorrentFreak, Strike 3 claims it detected illegal downloads originating from Meta corporate IPs via BitTorrent. The studio alleges that these files were used to train Meta’s experimental AI video generator, Movie Gen, along with the LLaMA language model. The lawsuit states downloads trace back to 2018, years before Meta formally began its multimodal AI projects, something the studio argues is suspicious and intentional.
Meta Strongly Denies The Claims
Meta has aggressively pushed back, calling the lawsuit “bogus,” “nonsensical,” and based on “guesswork and innuendo.” In a legal filing, the company urged a US district court to dismiss all copyright claims, arguing that no evidence exists linking the downloaded content to AI model training. Meta’s spokesperson emphasized that the company’s Terms of Service explicitly ban handling sexually explicit material, undercutting the premise of the complaint.
Employees May Be To Blame, Meta Suggests
In its response, Meta suggested that if any adult material was downloaded from its network, it was done by individual employees for personal use, not under corporate direction. The company claimed it never asked staff to obtain copyrighted adult films, nor authorized their collection for research purposes.
Counter-Argument: The Timeline Doesn’t Add Up
Meta’s legal defence also casts doubt on Strike 3’s timeline. The corporation publicly began its large-scale AI research efforts only in 2022, making allegations of porn-based training from 2018 technologically, and logistically, implausible. This, Meta argued, weakens the foundation of the suit.
Strike 3 insists Meta used at least 2,396 of its “award-winning” films to develop models powering Movie Gen. Meta, meanwhile, criticised the studio’s legal strategy, labeling it a “copyright troll” known for extortive litigation.