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.
In 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.
Apple has responded three months later to the suit. According to the court document spotted by MacRumors, Apple argued that the plaintiffs made the videos publicly available on YouTube, and that both the DMCA and YouTube’s Terms of Service permitted the company to access them.
“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 section 1201(a) requires.”
Apple is requesting the court throw out the lawsuit as the plaintiffs have failed to state a claim.
