Chicken Soup for the Soul, the company that publishes the eponymous inspirational anthologies, is the latest to sue tech companies over using their books to train LLMs. The company filed suit in the Northern District of California against Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, Apple, Perplexity, Nividia, and xAI, claiming that the tech companies pirated books from The Pile, LibGen, Z-Library, and Anna’s Archive when developing their AI models. Companies have previously stated that books are the best training material for LLMs. “The Chicken Soup for the Soul series is particularly valuable in this regard,” the complaint states. “Each volume contains dozens […]
Legal
Tracy Wolff Did Not Plagiarize ‘Crave’ Series, Court Finds
Yesterday, a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that Tracy Wolff did not plagiarize her bestselling Crave series. The long-running lawsuit, first brought in 2022 by writer Lynne Freeman, claimed that Crave was “substantially similar” to Freeman’s manuscript “Blue Moon Rising,” which was represented by Wolff’s agent Emily Sylvan Kim—and ultimately unpublished. The suit also named Kim, Crave publisher Entangled Books, distributor Macmillan, and Universal City Studios, which optioned Crave for film. After reading six drafts of “Blue Moon Rising” and the four Crave novels, Judge Colleen McMahon concludes that many of the similarities in the works […]
Grammarly Sued Over AI Feature That Impersonated Authors and Journalists
Author and New York Times contributing Opinion editor Julia Angwin has filed a class action lawsuit against Superhuman, the parent company of Grammarly, which in August released an AI feature that edited users’ work in the style of notable writers and editors. “Expert Review” name-checked writers including Stephen King, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Kara Swisher, and was developed without the creators’ knowledge or consent. (To add insult to injury, Angwin told Wired that the editing suggestions weren’t even good. “I was surprised at how bad it was,” she said.) “Contrary to the apparent belief of some tech companies, it is unlawful […]
Authors Sue Topps for Unpaid Royalties
Three authors represented by the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency are suing Topps for nonpayment of royalties. Topps sells collectibles and books, including those related to the BattleTech and Shadowrun game franchise, the IP of which Topps aquired in 2003, Writer Beware reports. “This case involves a publisher who has intentionally refused to pay its authors royalties or provide accountings required under the publisher’s contracts with the authors,” the complaint states. “The Topps Company, Inc. has instead strong-armed the authors and insisted that they give up their rights to future royalties so that Topps can change its business model.” Plaintiffs William […]
Publishers Sue Pirate Site Anna’s Archive
Thirteen publishers and the Association of American Publishers have filed suit against Anna’s Archive, a site that copies and distributes pirated books and has been used by tech companies to acquire books as training data for AI products. The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses the site of violating copyright on more than 140 million texts, including books and journal articles, and seeks a permanent injunction. “Anna’s Archive is a brazen pirate operation that steals and distributes millions of literary works while outrageously offering access to AI developers in exchange for […]
Amy Griffin’s Classmate Sues for Invasion of Privacy
A former classmate identified as Jane Doe has sued Amy Griffin, author of the NYT-bestselling memoir The Tell, in a California state court for invasion of privacy. The suit claims negligence, infliction of emotional distress, and more, stating Griffin used details of the plaintiff’s own sexual assaults in the book. It also names the book’s ghostwriter, Sam Lansky, as well as the book’s publisher and imprint, Penguin Random House and Dial Press. The Tell, which was published in 2025 and was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, details Griffin’s experience allegedly recovering memories during MDMA therapy. Griffin claims in the book […]