US judge approves Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright lawsuit settlement

Published Jul 20, 08:48 PM UTC

A federal judge in San Francisco approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement of a class action copyright lawsuit brought by authors who accused the AI company of using pirated books to train its chatbot Claude. The settlement is the largest known U.S. copyright case settlement. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin overruled objections that the amount was too small, noting the risks of trial. The case stemmed from a 2024 lawsuit; a prior ruling found fair use for AI training but violation for storing pirated books. Over 91% of eligible authors and publishers have claimed their share. Some authors opted out and filed separate lawsuits. Attorneys were awarded over $101 million in fees.