Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion in landmark copyright settlement over pirated book library

Published Jul 21, 01:37 PM UTC

A U.S. federal judge granted final approval of Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement in a class action copyright lawsuit filed by authors. The court ruled that training AI on published books constitutes fair use under copyright law, but found that Anthropic's retention of 7 million pirated books in a central library infringed on authors' and publishers' rights. This is the largest payout in a copyright case to date and the first settlement among many ongoing infringement cases against AI companies. The payout amounts to just over $200 per title, leading some plaintiffs to opt out and file separate lawsuits. Anthropic expressed satisfaction that over 91% of covered authors and publishers claimed their share. The case sets a precedent for other AI firms like Nvidia and Meta, which face similar allegations of using pirated content for AI training.