A new lawsuit filed by adult content producer Strike 3 Holdings against Meta alleges that the tech giant engaged in systematic torrenting and “seeding” of copyrighted adult videos for years to accelerate data downloads for its AI model training, reports Ars Tecnica. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in a U.S. district court in California, claims that Meta’s actions, which allegedly included distributing content to minors without age verification, contradict Meta’s previous denials of pirated data uploads in a separate copyright dispute with book authors.
Strike 3 Holdings, which operates several adult video websites attracting over 25 million monthly visitors, states it discovered evidence of Meta’s alleged infringement dating back to at least 2018. This discovery followed earlier accusations by book authors that Meta had torrented “at least 81.7 terabytes of data across multiple shadow libraries” to train its AI models. While Meta largely defeated the authors’ initial claims, asserting no proof of pirated data uploads via BitTorrent, Strike 3 Holdings’ new lawsuit could provide crucial evidence supporting the authors’ ongoing efforts to prove Meta profited from massive piracy.
According to Strike 3 Holdings, Meta “willfully and intentionally” infringed upon “at least 2,396 movies” as part of a strategy to rapidly download terabytes of data. The lawsuit contends that Meta utilized a “tit-for-tat” mechanism inherent in BitTorrent protocols, where users who distribute highly desired content receive faster downloads of other content. Meta allegedly exploited this by “often” pirating popular adult videos, sometimes on the very day of their release, and then “seeding” them for extended periods, “sometimes for days, weeks, or even months.” This tactic purportedly allowed Meta to accelerate its downloads of other vast amounts of data. Strike 3 Holdings believes these pirated movies were also secretly used to train Meta’s AI models.
A critical accusation in the lawsuit is that Meta’s alleged seeding practices could have led to the distribution of adult videos to minors without age checks. The complaint states, “Meta specifically targeted Plaintiffs’ content for distribution in order to accelerate its downloads of vast amounts of other content.” Despite Meta’s claim in the authors’ case that it “wrote a script to intentionally limit distributing popular books on BitTorrent,” Strike 3 Holdings anticipates that “discovery will likely show” Meta “continuously” distributed its adult videos specifically to manipulate the BitTorrent protocol. Strike 3 Holdings claims to have documented at least five instances where Meta “hand-picked” adult videos from a specific site for “intense periods of distribution” to avoid seeding other content.
The lawsuit details how Meta allegedly incurred “server and bandwidth expense of remaining in a swarm for these long durations” solely “to leverage the extended distribution as tit-for-tat currency in order to efficiently download millions of other files from BitTorrent.”
Strike 3 Holdings is seeking extensive damages and a permanent injunction to prevent Meta from further pirating its videos. The company also demands that Meta delete any stolen videos from its AI training data and existing AI models. The adult content producer expresses concern that Meta could use its high-quality copyrighted works – characterized by “natural, human-centric imagery” showing “parts of the body not found in regular videos” and “unique” forms “of human interactions and facial expressions” – to create a rival adult video generator. This, they argue, could “eventually create identical content for little to no cost,” effectively eliminating Strike 3 Holdings’ ability to compete and damaging its “hard-earned reputations as respected and ethical sources for high-quality adult motion pictures.” The lawsuit stresses the potential for “minors unfettered access to Plaintiffs’ content against Plaintiffs’ consent.”
In response to inquiries about the lawsuit, a Meta spokesperson stated, “We’re reviewing the complaint, but don’t believe Strike’s claims are accurate.”
To substantiate its claims, Strike 3 Holdings conducted an internal investigation using its “VXN Scan and Cross Reference tools,” identifying 47 IP addresses “owned by Facebook” that were found to be infringing its copyrighted works. This data allegedly demonstrates “continued unauthorized distribution” over “several years.” Strike 3 Holdings claims Meta did not cease its seeding activities even after being presented with this evidence, which was purportedly verified by an industry-leading provider, Maxmind.
The lawsuit further alleges that Meta attempted to “conceal its BitTorrent activities” through “six Virtual Private Clouds,” forming a “stealth network” of “hidden IP addresses.” This network seemingly implicated a “major third-party data center provider” in Meta’s alleged piracy. An analysis of these hidden IP addresses reportedly revealed “data patterns that matched infringement patterns seen on Meta’s corporate IP Addresses” and included “evidence of other activity on the BitTorrent network including ebooks, movies, television shows, music, and software.” The “seemingly non-human patterns” documented on both sets of IP addresses suggest the data was intended for AI training rather than personal use, according to Strike 3 Holdings.
Adding another layer to the allegations, Strike 3 Holdings claims to have found “at least one residential IP address of a Meta employee” infringing its copyrighted works. This suggests the possibility that Meta directed an employee to torrent pirated data outside the office to obscure the data trail. While the adult site operator did not identify the employee or the major data center in the complaint, a subsequent filing noted the risks of sharing sensitive information regarding Meta’s business and employees’ privacy.
In total, Strike 3 Holdings alleges that evidence shows “well over 100,000 unauthorized distribution transactions” linked to Meta’s corporate IPs. The company hopes this evidence will lead a jury to find Meta liable for direct copyright infringement. Alternatively, Strike 3 Holdings seeks to charge Meta with secondary and vicarious copyright infringement if the jury determines Meta successfully distanced itself through the use of the third-party data center or an employee’s home IP address.
The complaint asserts Meta’s “right and ability to supervise and/or control its own corporate IP addresses, as well as the IP addresses hosted in off-infra data centers, and the acts of its employees and agents infringing Plaintiffs’ Works through their residential IPs by using Meta’s AI script to obtain content through BitTorrent.”
