Apple is asking a federal court to dismiss the YouTuber AI training lawsuit on the basis that publicly available YouTube videos are legally accessible under both the DMCA and YouTube’s Terms of Service.
In April 2026, a series of YouTube channels sued Apple, claiming that the company scraped videos from YouTube to train internal AI models.
The class action lawsuit was led by Ted Entertainment, owner of the h3h3Productions channel and podcast. Two golf channels also participated: MrShortGameGolf and Golfholics.
Apple responded to the lawsuit three months later. According to court documents discovered by mcroomersApple argued that the plaintiffs published the videos on YouTube, and that both the DMCA and YouTube’s terms of service allowed the company to access the videos.
“Plaintiffs post their audiovisual works to YouTube and allege that the public can view them there,” Apple’s response reads. “No password, no payment, no lock, no key. YouTube reportedly employs technological measures to prevent unauthorized downloads. However, because YouTube provides public access to videos, the alleged technical measures do not control access to the works, as required by Section 1201(a).”
Apple is asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit because the plaintiffs have not made a statement.
