Kadrey

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

RICHARD KADREY, et al., Case No. 23-cv-03417-VC

Plaintiffs,

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO

v. DISMISS

META PLATFORMS, INC., Re: Dkt. No. 23 Defendant.

Meta has moved to dismiss all claims except the one alleging that the unauthorized copying of the plaintiffs’ books for purposes of training LLaMA constitutes copyright infringement. The motion is granted. The remaining theories of liability, at least as articulated in the complaint, are not viable. This order assumes familiarity with the facts of the case, the parties’ arguments, and the relevant law. 1. The plaintiffs allege that the “LLaMA language models are themselves infringing derivative works” because the “models cannot function without the expressive information extracted” from the plaintiffs’ books. This is nonsensical. A derivative work is “a work based upon one or more preexisting works” in any “form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted.” 17 U.S.C. § 101. There is no way to understand the LLaMA models themselves as a recasting or adaptation of any of the plaintiffs’ books. 2. Another theory is that…