CopyrightN.D. Cal.5:26-cv-02333

Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC v. Meta Platforms Inc.

Summary

Chicken Soup for the Soul sues Meta and AI companies for copyright infringement over training data use.

Summary generated by AI from public docket data. Verify against the original filing before relying on it.

Deep summary (AI brief of the complaint)

# Litigation Brief: Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC v. Meta Platforms Inc. et al. **Plaintiff:** Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC, owner of the *Chicken Soup for the Soul* nonfiction book franchise (500+ million copies sold since 1993). **Defendant:** Meta Platforms, Inc.; Anthropic PBC; Google LLC; OpenAI, Inc. and affiliated entities (6); xAI Corporation; Perplexity AI, Inc.; Apple Inc.; and NVIDIA Corporation (13 defendants total). **Core allegation:** Defendants downloaded pirated copies of Plaintiff's copyrighted books from shadow-library repositories (LibGen, Z-Library, The Pile/Books3, Anna's Archive) without authorization and used those copies to train and/or optimize their commercial LLMs. Each act of ingestion, preprocessing, and iterative training constituted a separate unlicensed reproduction in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 501. **Asserted IP:** - Copyrighted works comprising the *Chicken Soup for the Soul* book series (hundreds of titles; specific registration numbers not stated in the extracted text) - Works sourced from pirated corpora:…

AI-generated from the filed complaint. Always verify against the original document.

Coverage vs reality meter

Coverage vs realityNo signal

Prior 1P · 1D · 3N (11 articles)→Recent 30d 0P · 0D · 1N (1 article)

Latest ruling: neutral (2026-08-24)

Coverage breakdown — the articles behind the meter

5 plaintiff-favorable · 1 defendant-favorable · 6 neutral articles

The meter counts distinct coverage events, not articles: 1 plaintiff · 1 defendant · 4 neutral events — a burst of same-stance coverage counts once, however many outlets ran it.

Plaintiff-favorable
Defendant-favorable

Coverage sentiment vs. docket activity over time

Coverage sentiment vs. docket activity over time▲ plaintiff-favorable▼ defendant-favorable2026-03-16 · coverage 5P / 1D / 3N2026-04-06 · coverage 0P / 0D / 1N2026-04-13 · coverage 0P / 0D / 1N2026-08-03 · coverage 0P / 0D / 1NDocketFiled 2026-03-172026-06-19 · filing · favors defendant ANSWER to Amended Complaint by Meta Platforms Inc.. (Dunn, Karen) (Filed on 6/19/2026) (…2026-07-08 · ruling · favors neutral Order on Motion for Leave to Appeal2026-08-24 · ruling · favors neutral Order on Administrative Motion to Consider Whether Another Partys Material Should Be Sea…Mar 26Jun 26Aug 26filingruling■ plaintiff■ defendantweekly coverage · docket events

Counsel of record

For the plaintiff
For the defendant
Court
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
Docket no.
5:26-cv-02333
Nature of suit
Copyright
Judge
Vince Chhabria
Filed
2026-03-17
Last filing
2026-09-02

Cause

17:501 Copyright Infringement

Entities in this case

Meta43Chicken Soup for the Soul2

Parties

Cognella, Inc. NVIDIA Corporation Apple, Inc. Perplexity AI, Inc. xAI Corporation Meta Platforms Inc. OpenAI Holdings LLC OAI Corporation LLC OpenAI Global LLC OpenAI GP LLC OpenAI OPCO LLC OpenAI, Inc. Google LLC Anthropic PBC Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC

Docket entries

  1. 2026-09-01

    Notice of Appearance/Substitution/Change/Withdrawal of Attorney

  2. 2026-08-25

    Clerk's Notice AND ~Util - Teleconference Zoom

  3. 2026-08-24

    Order on Administrative Motion to Consider Whether Another Partys Material Should Be Sealed

  4. 2026-07-21

    Case Management Conference - Further AND ~Util - Set Deadlines/Hearings

  5. 2026-07-15

    Clerk's Notice AND ~Util - Teleconference Zoom

  6. 2026-07-08

    Order on Motion for Leave to Appeal

  7. 2026-07-01

    Case Management Conference - Further AND Order on Administrative Motion per Civil Local Rule 7-11 AND ~Util - Set Deadlines/Hearings

  8. #702026-06-24

    JOINT STIPULATION TO EXTEND TIME TO AMEND THE PLEADINGS, TO RESPOND TO THE AMENDED PLEADINGS, AND TO RELATE CASES AGAINST ANTHROPIC PBC Motion to Dismiss Hearing set for 12/10/2026, at 10:00 AM in San Jose, Courtroom 8, 4th Floor before Judge P. Casey Pitts. Signed by Judge P. Casey Pitts on 06/24/2026. (erm, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 6/24/2026). (Entered: 06/30/2026)

  9. #692026-06-24

    JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT filed by Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B)(Brannen, Elizabeth) (Filed on 6/24/2026) (Entered: 06/24/2026)

  10. #682026-06-19

    ANSWER to Amended Complaint by Meta Platforms Inc.. (Dunn, Karen) (Filed on 6/19/2026) (Entered: 06/19/2026)

  11. #672026-06-18

    CLERK'S NOTICE PROVIDING ZOOM ACCESS AND REQUIRING ADVANCED REGISTRATION OF COUNSEL RE 7/1/2026 CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE. Joint Case Management Statement due by 6/24/2026. Further Case Management Conference set for 7/1/2026 at 11:00 AM by Videoconference Only. This proceeding will be held via a Zoom webinar.Webinar Access: All counsel, members of the public, and media may access the webinar information at https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/vc Court Appearances: Advanced notice is required of counsel or parties who wish to be identified by the court as making an appearance or will be participating in the argument at the hearing. One list of names of all counsel appearing for all parties must be sent in one email to the CRD at vccrd@cand.uscourts.gov no later than Monday, June 29, 2026, by no later than 12:00PM.Civ LR 77-3(d). Persons granted access to court proceedings held by telephone or videoconference are reminded that photographing, recording, and rebroadcasting of court proceedings, including screenshots or other visual copying of a hearing, is absolutely prohibited.Zoom Guidance and Setup: https://cand.uscourts.gov/zoom. (This is a text-only entry generated by the court. There is no document associated with this entry.) (bxs, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 6/18/2026)Any non-CM/ECF Participants have been served by First Class Mail to the addresses of record listed on the Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) (Entered: 06/18/2026)

  12. 2026-06-18

    No description on file

  13. 2026-06-18

    Clerk's Notice AND ~Util - Teleconference Zoom

  14. 2026-06-08

    Notice of Appearance/Substitution/Change/Withdrawal of Attorney

  15. 2026-05-27

    CASE REFERRED to Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson for Discovery. (shy, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 5/27/2026)

  16. 2026-05-27

    Case Referred to Magistrate Judge for Discovery

  17. 2026-05-26

    Set/Reset Hearings

  18. 2026-05-26

    Case Management Conference - Initial AND ~Util - Set Hearings AND ~Util - Teleconference Zoom

  19. 2026-05-26

    Set/Reset Hearing: Final Pretrial Conference set for 5/11/2027 10:00 a.m. in San Francisco, Courtroom 03, 17th Floor before Judge Vince Chhabria.. Jury Selection set for 5/24/2027 at 10:00 a.m. in San Francisco, Courtroom 03, 17th Floor before Judge Vince Chhabria. Jury Trial set for 5/24/2027 at 10:00 a.m. in San Francisco, Courtroom 03, 17th Floor before Judge Vince Chhabria. (ahm, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 5/26/2026)

  20. 2026-05-21

    Notice of Appearance/Substitution/Change/Withdrawal of Attorney

  21. 2026-05-04

    ADR Clerk's Notice re: Non-Compliance

  22. 2026-04-10

    Clerk's Notice AND ~Util - Teleconference Zoom

  23. 2026-04-02

    Clerk's Notice of Impending Reassignment - Text Only

  24. 2026-04-02

    Clerk's Notice AND ~Util - Teleconference Zoom

  25. 2026-04-02

    Case Assigned/Reassigned

  26. 2026-03-18

    ~Util - Case Assigned by Intake

Docket history from CourtListener/RECAP — most recent first.

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View on CourtListener →Open in feed →Last updated 2026-09-02