Meta is facing fresh copyright heat after US courts ruled AI-generated text quoting entire song lyrics can count as “fair use.” The catch: individual creators can’t freely quote even short snippets in books without licensing.
The controversy flared around song lyrics from The National’s Bloodbuzz Ohio and Eminem’s Lose Yourself. A memoir writer disclosed he can’t legally print a 12-word line in his book due to copyright costs. But ChatGPT-style AI models trained by Meta can reuse those lyrics verbatim when generating new content without royalties.
This stems from recent court rulings protecting large AI companies like Meta and Anthropic, who train massive language models on copyrighted material. The output, even if exacly copied, is considered transformative “fair use”—while small creators remain restricted. 
Eminem’s publishing company, Eight Mile Style, is suing Meta over this, alleging exploitation of artists for “obscene monetary benefit” without licenses.
The memoir writer, who traded his way from thousands to $1.2 million then back down past zero in debt, raised the question: are copyright laws now just protecting the powerful? He pointed out the gap between what individuals can do versus giant AI corporations.
Here’s the lyric excerpt Meta’s AI could generate that the writer can’t print:
“I still owe money to the money to the money I owe,
But I spit gold out my throat when I flow,
So go tell the bank they can take what they like
I already gave my soul to the mic.”
The writer calls for copyright law updates to close these loopholes, saying current rules favor AI giants over human artists and writers.
No sign yet Meta has publicly responded to the lawsuit or criticism. The AI copyright battle is heating up fast.
