Meta may use sweeping new commercial TOS to avoid millions in AI licensing fees
Meta has revised its commercial terms of service to grant itself the right to scrape content from websites linked to business accounts for AI model training. These changes take effect October 30, requiring business users to accept the terms or cease using Meta services. Legal experts suggest the move is an attempt to bypass millions of dollars in AI licensing fees, particularly from news publishers, by obtaining broad permission to use their data for free.
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- ✓ Meta's updated commercial terms allow the company to scrape content from websites linked to business accounts to train AI.
- ✓ The new terms take effect on October 30.
- ✓ Business users must accept the new terms or stop using Meta services.
- ✓ Legal experts describe the updated terms as a way for Meta to avoid paying millions in AI licensing fees.
What changed
Meta announced updated commercial terms of service that mandate AI scraping rights for business accounts starting October 30.
Live updates
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Meta updates commercial terms to scrape business websites for AI training
Meta has revised its commercial terms of service to grant itself the right to scrape content from websites linked to business accounts for AI model training. These changes take effect October 30, requiring business users to accept the terms or cease using Meta services. Legal experts suggest the move is an attempt to bypass millions of dollars in AI licensing fees, particularly from news publishers, by obtaining broad permission to use their data for free.
Why it matters
AI developers typically pay publishers for high-quality training data through licensing agreements. By integrating scraping rights into its general business terms, Meta may undermine the market for these paid deals. This shift raises questions about copyright and the effectiveness of robots.txt files in blocking AI bots.
What is confirmed
- Meta's updated commercial terms allow the company to scrape content from websites linked to business accounts to train AI.
- The new terms take effect on October 30.
- Business users must accept the new terms or stop using Meta services.
- Legal experts describe the updated terms as a way for Meta to avoid paying millions in AI licensing fees.
Still unconfirmed
- The new terms may specifically allow Meta to train AI on news sites for free.
- The move is characterized by some as an AI power grab.
What to watch next
- October 30 implementation of the new terms
- Legal challenges regarding copyright and consent from business users
- Responses from news publishers regarding existing licensing deals
confidence 90%Sources used for this update (11)
- Ars Technica — Meta may use sweeping new commercial TOS to avoid millions in AI licensing fees
- Nieman Lab — Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say
- Gizmodo — Meta to Literally Every Business User: Nice Website You Got There
- The Register — Meta grants itself right to scrape content from business customers for model training
- The Verge — Meta’s new terms may allow it to train AI on news sites for free
- arstechnica.com — Meta may use sweeping new commercial TOS to avoid millions in ...
- securityaffairs.com — Meta wants to scrape your website to train its AI, and you can’t say no
- tech.slashdot.org — Meta May Use Sweeping New Commercial TOS to Avoid Millions In ...
- www.theai.news — Meta may use sweeping new commercial TOS to avoid millions in ...
- www.worldneural.com — Meta may use sweeping new commercial TOS to avoid millions i
- www.cultofmac.com — Price cut: Get 50-plus AI models for life for just $29.97, with no monthly fees
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