Judge lets YouTube creators' case against Runway move forward

A US federal judge has, according to a case summary, denied AI company Runway's motion to dismiss a class action brought by YouTube creators. The ruling came on October 30, 2026. It means the claims against the company can proceed in court.

The information comes from a single summary from AI Law Wiki, and the ruling itself has not been reviewed here.

What is the case about?

The company Businessing LLC, which runs the YouTube channel Ali Spagnola, filed a proposed class action against Runway in federal court in the Southern District of New York on February 27, 2026. A class action is a lawsuit in which one or a few plaintiffs bring the case on behalf of a larger group in the same situation.

The plaintiffs claim that Runway circumvented YouTube's technical access restrictions to download videos for AI training. This allegedly includes at least 1,200 videos from Spagnola's channel. The lawsuit is based on a provision in US law (DMCA, 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)) that prohibits circumventing technical protections.

According to the plaintiffs, Runway used the download tool yt-dlp, virtual machines, rotating IP addresses and automated scripts to download the videos and prepare them for training. These are solely the plaintiffs' allegations. According to AI Certs, the cases rely on a leaked internal spreadsheet that 404 Media reportedly revealed, and which allegedly shows thousands of selected YouTube channels.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages, certification of the class action and an injunction. They have also cited state laws on unfair competition.

Multiple cases consolidated

A parallel case was filed by Ace Cam Inc. (Random Golf Club). According to a summary, it focuses on the anti-circumvention provision rather than ordinary copyright infringement. The theory is that the way YouTube streams videos is an effective technical protection, and that Runway circumvented it to get at the underlying video files.

Judge Lewis Kaplan consolidated the Ace Cam and Businessing cases on March 27, 2026. The Gardner case was added on June 9, 2026. The consolidation is procedural and does not take a position on who is right.

The judge's reasoning

Runway has argued to the court that access to YouTube is public, and that it therefore cannot constitute circumvention of access controls.

According to the case summary, Judge Kaplan found that the creators had sufficiently alleged protective controls and circumvention. He is also said to have held that technical measures can regulate both access and use, and that uploaders implicitly authorize YouTube to use such protections.

The ruling does not decide whether circumvention actually took place, and it does not certify the class action.

Runway's response

Runway has not confirmed the details of the allegations. According to AI Certs, the company has only said that it uses "curated, internal datasets." The statement comes from an earlier article and is not a reaction to the ruling.