# Judge Orders Meta to Name Decision-Makers in AI Book Torrenting Case

By Riza Dagoc

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/36337
Published: 2026-10-21T04:36:58.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-21T04:36:58.000Z
Section: Regulation

> The Oct. 19 order covers decisions about BitTorrent use and seeding during downloads of shadow-library material.

A federal judge ordered Meta Platforms to identify the people who made or approved decisions to obtain shadow-library datasets containing Entrepreneur Media’s works for AI training, putting internal approvals at issue in a copyright lawsuit.

The Oct. 19 order also covers decisions about using BitTorrent and whether or how to seed files, or limit seeding, during downloads of LibGen Scimag and Anna’s Archive content. Seeding can make downloaded material available to other BitTorrent users.

Meta told the court that decisions often arose through team consensus and said it was unaware of anyone who decided to upload or distribute the datasets. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ruled that Meta must identify participants even when a group, rather than one person, made a decision.

The order determines what Meta must disclose in the case. It does not decide whether the company infringed copyright or whether an executive authorized the downloads. In a related authors’ case, a June 2025 ruling favored Meta on the named plaintiffs’ claim over using their books to train AI models, while leaving a claim about alleged distribution during torrenting unresolved.