Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixon ordered Meta to identify everyone who made or approved decisions to download pirated books from LibGen, Anna’s Archive, and other shadow libraries, in copyright suits brought by authors including Sarah Silverman and by Entrepreneur Media. Meta had argued its early Llama datasets were gathered informally and collaboratively, so no one with authority actually decided to torrent anything. Hixon said the plaintiffs’ request covers informal decisions and every decision-maker, not just one. Staffers have testified that some downloads needed director or VP approval, and unsealed messages refer to an escalation to “MZ.” Meta also has to hand over command logs from the servers it used to torrent, which could show whether it seeded the books to others.
