Babak Akhlaghi Discusses Meta’s New Commercial Terms and AI Training Rights in The Steampunk Explorer
The Steampunk Explorer, October 14, 2026
NovoTech Patent Firm Founding Director Babak Akhlaghi spoke with journalist Stephen Beale of The Steampunk Explorer about Meta’s new Commercial Terms. The terms included a new provision authorizing Meta to crawl web pages associated with a business user’s products or services and use that content to develop and train its products.
Babak explained that the terms could change how AI training is analyzed legally. “If Meta has a valid license to use content for training purposes, the inquiry shifts away from whether the use is fair use and toward whether Meta had permission to use the content in the first place,” he said.
He also discussed:
- Scope: whether the phrase “any content” could reach e-books, videos, music and other creative works, or should be read more narrowly to cover business materials such as product descriptions and catalogs.
- Enforcement: how Meta might treat users who block its crawlers.
- Enforceability: whether unilateral updates to online terms bind users. A key issue, he noted, “is often whether there was adequate notice and meaningful assent.”
Update: Since the article was published, the story has drawn wider attention. Nieman Lab and other outlets have covered it, two U.S. senators have spoken out, and Meta has delayed implementation pending consultation with industry leaders.
