Ex-Meta Researcher Admits Torrenting Pirated Books, Then Deleted Them Over the Lawsuits
Ex-Meta Researcher Torrented Pirated Books, Deleted It 'Due to Litigation'
Stephen Roller, who worked at Meta from 2017 to 2023, testified in a deposition that he torrented the Books3 dataset of nearly 200,000 pirated books and knowingly distributed it, then deleted his copy about a year ago "due to all this litigation." The plaintiffs, including Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, say he also named two researchers who likely had their own copies. Meta argues the download may have been for himself, not the company.
He did so "due to all this litigation," as "it seemed contentious to have copies of The Pile."
- Aboutplants
Yes… I also deleted all of those MP3s I downloaded in the 90’s and 00’s…
- nico
It’s interesting that it’s supposed to be very bad to destroy evidence, especially after litigation has started. But in the end, usually the consequences are better for the person destroying the evidence, than actually preserving it
If the evidence was very damning, and it’s not there anymore, the judge/jury can’t really properly make a determination about it if it’s gone
I’m not a lawyer, so someone with more legal experience could pitch in, but that’s my impression from seeing these big corporate cases on the news, as well as some personal experience in smaller civil cases in court
- 0x20cowboy
Even if they had bought all the books, wouldn’t people still be mad they trained an AI with it? I doubt it would quell the “It can emulate an Author’s style” complaints.
- xbar
You wouldn't steal a book....
- someothherguyy
meta has issues with employees using its network to pirate things, or its just a good time to try to eat with the AI scraper assumption
https://torrentfreak.com/meta-pirated-adult-film-downloads-w...