Three YouTube channels have banded together and filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, as first spotted by MacRumors. According to the lawsuit, the creators behind h3h3 Productions, MrShortGameGolf and Golfholics have accused Apple of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by scraping copyrighted videos on YouTube to train its AI models.
While the YouTubers' videos are available to watch on the platform, the lawsuit alleged that Apple illegally circumvented the "controlled streaming architecture" that regular users are limited to. The creators claimed that Apple's video scraping was used to train its generative AI products, adding that the tech giant's "massive financial success would not have been possible without the video content created" by the YouTubers. MacRumors noted that these YouTube channels have also filed similar lawsuits against other tech companies, including Meta, Nvidia, ByteDance and Snap.
It's not the first time a company's alleged AI training methods have gotten them in legal trouble. OpenAI and Microsoft were both accused of using copyrighted articles from the NYTimes to train its AI chatbots. Similarly,
Apple's beautiful Passeig de Gràcia store in the heart of Barcelona, Spain has been temporarily closed for renovations since mid-February, but the location is finally set to reopen next month. The store will resume business on May 26, according to Apple's website.
