{"id":2054840,"date":"2026-07-21T21:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2054840"},"modified":"2026-07-21T21:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:06:15","slug":"anthropic-ordered-to-pay-largest-copyright-class-action-settlement-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2054840","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic ordered to pay largest copyright class action settlement in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Home<\/a>><\/span>Tech<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Judge approves Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors<\/h1>\n
The payout resolves claims that Anthropic pirated books to build its AI training library.<\/div>\n
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\n \u00a0By\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chance Townsend<\/a><\/p>\n
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Chance Townsend<\/div>\n
Editor, General Assignments<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master’s in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and Mother Jones<\/em>.\n <\/div>\n

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A federal judge in San Francisco has granted final approval<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Araceli Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn signed the order on July 20<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/span>Anthropic to provide California government with AI tools<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

In an earlier ruling cited throughout the order<\/a>, the court had already determined that the use of training itself constituted fair use.<\/p>\n

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Per the settlement, authors and publishers whose pirated books ended up on Anthropic’s “Works List” can claim roughly $3,000 per book \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

The settlement only releases Anthropic from liability for how it acquired the training data in the past \u2014 not from future lawsuits over what the chatbot generates, or new claims going forward. Judge Araceli Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn was explicit that the settlement does not release claims for future harm or claims “based on the output of AI models.”<\/p>\n

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