Judge Approves $1.5 Billion Anthropic Copyright Settlement

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin gave final approval Monday to Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement of a class-action copyright lawsuit, clearing the way for the AI company to begin compensating authors and publishers whose books were used to train its Claude chatbot.



The payout provides $3,000 per work across an estimated 500,000 titles. According to a Reuters report, it is the largest known settlement in a U.S. copyright case. More than 91 percent of eligible authors and publishers submitted claims for payment.


Anthropic originally faced trial over allegations that it illegally downloaded millions of pirated books from sites including Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror. Retired Judge William Alsup ruled last year that training AI on copyrighted text qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright law. He also found that the company's mass downloading and storage of pirated works was unlawful. To avoid a jury trial and potentially larger damages, Anthropic agreed to the settlement shortly after that ruling.

Judge Martinez-Olguin overruled objections from some authors who argued the settlement was too small. She said those complaints were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial" and approved more than $101 million in attorneys' fees.

The settlement closes this case, but the broader fair use question remains unsettled. Alsup's ruling was issued by a single federal district court and, because Anthropic settled, it will never be reviewed by an appeals court or become binding precedent. Copyright lawsuits against AI companies including Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Midjourney are still moving through federal courts, meaning the broader legality of using copyrighted works to train AI models remains unresolved.