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AI copyright news, graded by source

Court rulings, company filings and allegations in the copyright cases against AI companies and pirate libraries, over books, articles, music, images, video and code. Checked for new filings every three hours; items are posted after review, so some appear later. Get these by e-mail · Court filings, free to read

Each item is graded by its source: a court’s ruling or order; a company’s own filing about itself; a defendant’s filing arguing its side; a plaintiffs’ filing; the claims in a complaint (allegation); or press reporting.

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AllegationJune 16, 2026Apress Media, LLC v. WeLib · S.D.N.Y. 1:26-cv-05064

Thirteen publishers sue WeLib, alleging it copied most of Anna's Archive and has supplied pirated books to the AI industry

Thirteen publishers, including Cengage, Elsevier, Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Pearson, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, sued the site WeLib and its unidentified operators for copyright infringement. The complaint alleges WeLib launched around 2025 by mirroring most of Anna's Archive's collection and using a copy of its code, that searches for the publishers' names return millions of entries, nearly all served from WeLib's own servers, and that it sells faster downloads as paid memberships. It also alleges WeLib has supplied content to the AI industry, pointing to the publishers' separate suit alleging that Meta used WeLib for its Llama models. These are allegations; the operators have not been identified.

Complaint (Dkt. 1), on DocumentCloud ↗

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What the labels mean

Every item says what kind of source it rests on. A court ruling or order is the court's own statement. A company filing is what a defendant says about itself. A government filing is a statement by a government agency that is not a party to the case, such as a statement of interest; it is the government's position, not a ruling. An allegation is what a complaint or motion claims and has not been decided. Reported means press reporting we have not confirmed from the primary document. Summaries are our own; follow the links for the source.

This page is general information, not legal advice. An allegation is not a finding. Whether any of this matters for a particular work or claim is a question for a lawyer.