Apple is asking a federal court to dismiss a class-action lawsuit brought by owners of three YouTube channels that allege Apple scraped millions of copyrighted videos to train AI models. The complaint, filed in April 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names h3h3Productions (operated by Ethan and Hila Klein), along with MrShortGame Golf and Golfholics. The plaintiffs allege Apple violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by “deliberately circumventing” YouTube protections against video scraping and by profiting from the use of the content. Apple counters that the videos were publicly available on YouTube with no paywall or access restrictions, and therefore the DMCA does not prohibit access in this context. In court filings described by reporting outlets, Apple argues that because the works are viewable to any member of the public, YouTube’s technological measures do not control “access” to the works in a way that satisfies the DMCA’s requirements. Apple also asserts that YouTube’s Terms of Service permit the kind of access at issue. Apple asks the court to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim.
Apple asks court to dismiss YouTube AI scraping copyright lawsuit
Apple is asking a federal court to dismiss a class-action lawsuit brought by owners of three YouTube channels that allege Apple scraped millions of copyrighted videos to train AI models. The complaint...
- A class-action lawsuit filed in April 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleges Apple scraped millions of YouTube videos to train AI models.
- The plaintiffs are owners of the h3h3Productions, MrShortGame Golf, and Golfholics YouTube channels.
- The plaintiffs allege Apple violated the DMCA by “deliberately circumventing” protections against scraping and profiting from the use of copyrighted videos.
- Apple argues the videos were publicly accessible on YouTube without passwords or payments, so the alleged technological measures do not control access as required by the DMCA.
- Apple also says YouTube’s Terms of Service allow access to the videos, and it requests dismissal of the claims.
Apple is asking a federal court to dismiss the YouTuber AI training lawsuit, on the grounds that publicly available YouTube videos are lawfully accessible under both the DMCA and YouTube's Terms of Service.Apple seeks dismissal of YouTube AI training lawsuitIn April 2026, a collection of YouTube channels sued Apple, claiming the company had scraped videos from YouTube to train internal AI models.The class-action lawsuit was headed up by Ted Entertainment, owners of the h3h3Productions channels and podcast. Two golf channels, MrShortGameGolf and Golfholics, were also involved. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
4 hours agoEarlier this year, three YouTube channels sued Apple, alleging that the company violated the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by unlawfully accessing and scraping millions of copyrighted YouTube videos to train its AI models. In a class action lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in April, the owners of the YouTube channels h3h3Productions, MrShortGame Golf, and Golfholics allege that Apple "deliberately circumvented" YouTube's protections against video scraping and "profited substantially" by doing so. Apple's actions were "not only unlawful, but an unconscionable attack on the community of content creators whose content is used to fuel the multi-trillion-dollar generative AI industry without any compensation," the complaint alleged. h3h3Productions is a well-known YouTube channel created by Ethan Klein and Hila Klein, and they later created the H3 Podcast. Their channels have millions of followers, while MrShortGame Golf and Golfholics have hundreds of thousands of followers. The channels filed equivalent lawsuits against Meta, Nvidia, ByteDance, and Snap. Apple responded to the lawsuit this week, according to a court document viewed by MacRumors. In short, Apple said the plaintiffs made the videos publicly available on YouTube and that it was permitted to access the videos under the DMCA. Apple said YouTube's Terms of Service likewise permitted the company to access the videos. "Plaintiffs allege that they posted audiovisual works to YouTube, and that any member of the public can see them there," reads Apple's response. "No password. No payment. No lock. No key. Allegedly, YouTube employs technological measures to prevent unauthorized downloading. But because YouTube provides public access to the videos, the alleged technological measures do not control access to the works, as § 1201(a) requires." Apple said the plaintiffs have ultimately failed to state a claim, and it requested that the court dismiss the lawsuit as a result.Tags: Apple Lawsuits, YouTubeThis article, "Apple Responds to Lawsuit Filed by Three YouTube Channels" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
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