By MATT O’BRIEN and BARBARA ORTUTAY

A federal judge on Wednesday sided with Facebook parent Meta Platforms in dismissing a copyright infringement lawsuit from a group of authors who accused the company of stealing their works to train its artificial intelligence technology.

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The ruling from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabri was the second in a week from San Francisco’s federal court to dismiss major copyright claims from book authors against the rapidly developing AI industry.

Chhabri found that 13 authors who sued Meta “made the wrong arguments” and tossed the case. But the judge also said that the ruling is limited to the authors in the case and does not mean that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials is lawful.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs — a group of well-known writers that includes comedian Sarah Silverman and authors Jacqueline Woodson and Ta-Nehisi Coates — didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Meta also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This ruling does not stand for the proposition that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials to train its language models is lawful,” Chhabri wrote. “It stands only for the proposition that these plaintiffs made the wrong arguments and failed to develop a record in support of the right one.”

On Monday, from the same courthouse, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that AI company Anthropic didn’t break the law by training its chatbot Claude on millions of copyrighted books, but the company must still go to trial for illicitly acquiring those books from pirate websites instead of buying them.

But the actual process of an AI system distilling from thousands of written works to be able to produce its own passages of text qualified as “fair use” under U.S. copyright law because it was “quintessentially transformative,” Alsup wrote.

Chhabria, in his Meta ruling, criticized Alsup’s reasoning on the Anthropic case, arguing that “Alsup focused heavily on the transformative nature of generative AI while brushing aside concerns about the harm it can inflict on the market for the works it gets trained on.”

Chhabria suggested that a case for such harm can be made.

In the Meta case, the authors had argued in court filings that Meta is “liable for massive copyright infringement” by taking their books from online repositories of pirated works and feeding them into Meta’s flagship generative AI system Llama.

Lengthy and distinctively written passages of text — such as those found in books — are highly useful for teaching generative AI chatbots the patterns of human language. “Meta could and should have paid” to buy and license those literary works, the authors’ attorneys argued.

Meta countered in court filings that U.S. copyright law “allows the unauthorized copying of a work to transform it into something new” and that the new, AI-generated expression that comes out of its chatbots is fundamentally different from the books it was trained on.

“After nearly two years of litigation, there still is no evidence that anyone has ever used Llama as a substitute for reading Plaintiffs’ books, or that they even could,” Meta’s attorneys argued.

Meta says Llama won’t output the actual works it has copied, even when asked to do so.

“No one can use Llama to read Sarah Silverman’s description of her childhood, or Junot Diaz’s story of a Dominican boy growing up in New Jersey,” its attorneys wrote.

Accused of pulling those books from online “shadow libraries,” Meta has also argued that the methods it used have “no bearing on the nature and purpose of its use” and it would have been the same result if the company instead struck a deal with real libraries.

Such deals are how Google built its online Google Books repository of more than 20 million books, though it also fought a decade of legal challenges before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 let stand lower court rulings that rejected copyright infringement claims.

The authors’ case against Meta forced CEO Mark Zuckerberg to be deposed, and has disclosed internal conversations at the company over the ethics of tapping into pirated databases that have long attracted scrutiny.

“Authorities regularly shut down their domains and even prosecute the perpetrators,” the authors’ attorneys argued in a court filing. “That Meta knew taking copyrighted works from pirated databases could expose the company to enormous risk is beyond dispute: it triggered an escalation to Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives for approval. Their gamble should not pay off.”

“Whatever the merits of generative artificial intelligence, or GenAI, stealing copyrighted works off the Internet for one’s own benefit has always been unlawful,” they argued.

The named plaintiffs are Jacqueline Woodson, Richard Kadrey, Andrew Sean Greer, Rachel Louise Snyder, David Henry Hwang, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Laura Lippman, Matthew Klam, Junot Diaz, Sarah Silverman, Lysa TerKeurst, Christopher Golden and Christopher Farnsworth.

Most of the plaintiffs had asked Chhabria to rule now, rather than wait for a jury trial, on the basic claim of whether Meta infringed on their copyrights. Two of the plaintiffs, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Christopher Golden, did not seek such summary judgment.

Chhabri said in the ruling that while he had “no choice” but to grant Meta’s summary judgment tossing the case, “in the grand scheme of things, the consequences of this ruling are limited. This is not a class action, so the ruling only affects the rights of these 13 authors — not the countless others whose works Meta used to train its models.”

The Ramsey County board of commissioners accepted a $3 million legislative grant for a public safety and livability initiative in the area surrounding the state Capitol.

Funding will be used by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office for a public safety and livability plan in the area, which includes around 60 blocks surrounding the state Capitol. It’s focus is additional police presence, youth and family programming, community partnerships – such as with area residents, businesses, non-profits and service providers – addressing public transit and other concerns as well as beautification.

The funding is available to the county from July 1 this year until June 30, 2029 and comes from the Legislature’s Capitol Area Community Vitality Account. Expenses are to be higher during the project’s first year, which is expected to include the establishment of a store-front location.

The project must be developed in partnership with the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board — a state agency — and community partners. The board’s purpose is to “preserve and enhance the dignity, beauty, and architectural integrity of the capitol, the buildings adjacent to it, the capitol grounds, and the capitol area,” according to its website.

The partnership must focus on improving “the livability, economic health and safety of communities” within the area. The project also will include street and neighborhood cleanup and ambassadors.

Project objectives include reducing quality-of-life issues and criminal activity, such as illegal drug use and promoting violence prevention, enhancing safety and strengthening partnerships with public agencies and neighborhood organizations. There also is a focus on sustainability and beautification of the area and improving community access to social services.

As part of the initiative, funding is planned for two full-time deputy sheriffs dedicated to patrols and referrals, as well as four full-time community service officers.

The sheriff’s office also will provide extra patrols and visibility, including through its Carjacking and Auto Theft Unit, and there will be an increased presence in key locations, such as light rail stations and other areas of public transportation.

A mobile camera, monitored by personnel, also will be at Park Street and University Avenue.

The initiative also focuses on youth services such as outreach to families in the area in order to prevent crime and promote learning through academics, literacy, physical activities and leadership development.

Prior to any use of funds involving the Capitol complex, the county sheriff’s office is required to consult with the state commissioner of Public Safety and the three-year project is expected to have measurable outcomes and periodic evaluations.

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Michael Boxall’s desire to shirk the spotlight came out moments after the Minnesota United captain was made the center of attention Tuesday.

Loons teammates, coaches, club staff and members of the ACES non-profit he supports choreographed a reveal that Boxall has been voted into the MLS All-Star Game for the first time in his 10-year MLS career.

After basking in the celebratory scene as much as a stoic can stomach, Boxall saw the amount of reporter lens focused on him and said, “Too many cameras.”

Boxall and MNUFC goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair will participate in the MLS showcase match against Liga MX All-Stars on July 23 in Austin, Texas. St. Clair, who is away with the Canadian men’s national team, made his first appearance in 2022 when the exhibition was in St. Paul.

Boxall didn’t want any more attention cast on him with the club’s get-out-the-vote campaign over the previous month and passed the credit when singled out Tuesday.

“I’ve never been disappointed when I haven’t made (the All-Star Game), so I think making it doesn’t really bring the opposite of that,” Boxall said in an interview. “I think me being there … feels more like a team award. If there ever was a time when an individual took credit for what the whole team does, I think this is an example of that.”

Boxall did get emotional when his wife and two young kids were a part of the presentation at the National Sports Center in Blaine. His son Beau had an All-Star jersey for his dad.

“Yeah, that’s, I mean, just not expected,” Boxall said. “Obviously, everything I do, it’s for my kids. So just seeing them happy, happy for me, is pretty cool.”

Boxall and St. Clair are stalwarts on a Loons’ defense tied for the fourth-fewest goals allowed (20 in 18 games) this season. St. Clair is tied for MLS lead with eight clean sheets. Boxall is fifth in the league with 117 clearances.

For Boxall, an All-Star nod is also a bit of a career achievement award, given the 36-year-old’s 250-plus appearances nine seasons at MNUFC.

“On so many fronts, he is deserving of this,” head coach Eric Ramsay said Tuesday. “First and foremost for a player who has been here this long to have this opportunity at this stage in his career is huge. It’s a testament to how he’s looked after himself and the level of performance he’s been able to maintain and the way people look at him here.”

Ramsay previously said he might need to manage Boxall’s workload and, while he doesn’t do all training sessions, he has been a regular in the lineup, playing 1,350 out of a possible 1,620 minutes the season. He has been indispensable in what has become a more competitive position group.

“For him to not only maintain the level of performance but gone beyond is a real credit to him,” Ramsay said.

The Loons have had five other players named to All-Star games: Robin Lod (2024), Emmanuel Reynoso (2022, ’21), Romain Metanire (2019), Darwin Quintero (2018) and Francisco Calvo (2018).

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“Ten years later, Harlem is still waiting for justice and for a recognition of the truth that community safety doesn’t come from raids, prisons, or gang lists.”

New York City Housing Authority’s Manhattanville Houses. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

On June 4, 2014, one of New York City’s most extensive gang raids took place at the Manhattanville and Grant public housing developments in West Harlem, sweeping up 103 young people, most of them Black and Latino.

A decade later, families impacted by the raid continue to struggle with the trauma and fallout. The resources and services the community asked for before and after the raid never came because anti-gang policing in Harlem—and across the U.S.—has not resulted in equitable justice for communities of color. It has always been about feeding more people into a prison system that disproportionately targets communities of color.

Recent deportations of Venezuelan immigrants (including green card holders and those with legal status) accused of gang affiliation—based on tattoos and without due process—repeat the same racist tactics behind anti-gang policing in New York. These tactics share a pattern: dehumanize Black and Latino people by framing them as inherently violent, thus justifying heightened policing, surveillance, and incarceration.

Harlem’s history with police brutality is long and well-documented. Before the 2014 raids, there was Stop and Frisk, a program rooted in racial profiling. Before that, Broken Windows policing criminalized poverty. And before that, infamous cases like the Central Park Five and the Harlem Six—Black and Latino youth wrongfully targeted and prosecuted under the guise of public safety. Each policy has had a new name for the same old system of racialized policing.

Walking through the Manhattanville and Grant developments today reveals the same systemic neglect that existed before the raid and has only intensified. Homelessness is accelerating, services remain scarce, and poverty persists. The youth who were paraded as violent criminals were the children of parents struggling against generational disinvestment, and those youth have grown into adults facing the same struggles.

This story is not unique to Harlem. Black and Latino neighborhoods across the country face the same dynamics—structural inequities masked by over-policing. These communities know well that the police are not there to uplift or protect them, but serve to protect property, wealth, and the status quo.

Under President Trump, immigration enforcement has adopted the same dehumanizing tactics long used in Black and brown communities. By branding immigrants as “animals” and gang members, and even invoking the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport them without due process to maximum-security prisons in foreign countries, the administration has justified extreme actions while masking them as neutral law enforcement. Meanwhile, primarily white insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol were pardoned and rebranded as patriots, reinforcing that violence is not always criminalized unless people of color commit it.

This two-tiered justice system is mirrored in the language used by law enforcement. The term “gang” is used by law enforcement as a racially coded word to describe Black and Latino youth. Government officials then use that label to justify the suspension of rights, the erosion of due process, and the use of brutality. 

In Harlem, we worked directly with many of the 103 young people entrapped in the 2014 raids, alongside the Tayashana Chicken Murphy Foundation (TCMF). Our efforts included reentry support, restorative justice circles, job-readiness training, and licensing programs. But when our limited funding ran out, those crucial supports disappeared, leaving the community to deal with the lasting effects of the raids without the tools it needed to heal.

Anti-gang policing is not a broken system. It functions exactly as designed—to criminalize and control people of color. It’s a direct descendant of Jim Crow, the War on Drugs, and the policies that have built the modern prison-industrial complex. And even as crime in New York reaches historic lows, Black and Latino youth continue to be scapegoated as the main drivers of violence. New York City’s gang database, for example, is 99 percent Black and Latino, yet officials insist it is not discriminatory.

But our neighborhoods are not naturally violent. They are the product of decades of trauma, displacement, and systemic neglect. Rather than addressing these root causes, the state continues to rely on fear-based tactics—labeling people of color as gang members who are threatening safety—to distract from the real national crisis: the erosion of democratic values and the rise of authoritarianism.

Ten years later, Harlem is still waiting for justice and for a recognition of the truth that community safety doesn’t come from raids, prisons, or gang lists. Community safety comes from meaningful investments, services, and resources that support communities that have long suffered from systemic neglect and racist policies and policing tactics.

Anthony Posada is a supervising attorney in the Community Justice Unit and Criminal Law Reform at The Legal Aid Society. Matthew Brodwith is a community organizer in the Community Justice Unit at the Legal Aid Society. Taylonn Murphy Sr. is an anti-violence activist, consultant and the founder of the Tayshana “Chicken” Murphy foundation. He is the father of Tayshana Murphy and Taylonn Murphy Jr.

The post Opinion: The Reality of Anti-Gang Policing in Harlem and Beyond appeared first on City Limits.