Anthropic ordered to pay largest copyright class action s…

A federal judge in San Francisco has approved a $1.5 billion settlement involving Anthropic and authors who alleged the firm illegally downloaded copyrighted books. The settlement resolves claims from lead plaintiffs who contended Anthropic used pirated libraries to build its book collection, though the court ruled that the act of training AI models on copyrighted material itself is lawful. Authors can claim roughly $3,000 per book from over 440,000 eligible works, with 91% already claimed. The settlement absolves Anthropic from past liability regarding data acquisition, but not from future lawsuits. The court rejected additional requests from class members to expand the settlement's scope.

the Anthropic logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A federal judge in San Francisco has granted final approval to a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and a class of authors who accused the AI company of illegally downloading their copyrighted books, closing out what the court called the largest copyright class action settlement in history.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín signed the order on July 20, resolving claims brought by lead plaintiffs Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and others over Anthropic's use of pirated libraries LibGen and PiLiMi to build its book collection. Notably, the underlying dispute centered on how Anthropic acquired the books, not on whether training AI models with copyrighted material is lawful.

In an earlier ruling cited throughout the order, the court had already determined that the use of training itself constituted fair use.

Mashable Light Speed

Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories?

Loading... Sign Me Up

Use this instead

By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Thanks for signing up!

You May Also Like

Per the settlement, authors and publishers whose pirated books ended up on Anthropic's "Works List" can claim roughly $3,000 per book — about four times the usual minimum for copyright infringement cases. More than 91 percent of eligible works, over 440,000 books, have already been claimed. Anthropic also has to delete the pirated files it downloaded.

The settlement only releases Anthropic from liability for how it acquired the training data in the past — not from future lawsuits over what the chatbot generates, or new claims going forward. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín was explicit that the settlement does not release claims for future harm or claims "based on the output of AI models."