Anthropic ordered to pay largest copyright class action settlement in history - Mashable

What the report says

Mashable reports that a federal judge in San Francisco has given final approval to a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and a class of authors who alleged the AI company unlawfully downloaded copyrighted books for its training library. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín signed the order on July 20, resolving claims led by authors including Andrea Bartz and Kirk Wallace Johnson.

According to Mashable, the case focused on Anthropic’s acquisition of books from pirated libraries including LibGen and PiLiMi, rather than directly deciding whether using copyrighted books to train AI systems is legal. The article notes that an earlier ruling cited in the order found the training use itself to be fair use. The settlement has been described by the court as the largest copyright class action settlement in history.

Under the agreement, eligible authors and publishers whose titles appear on Anthropic’s “Works List” can seek about $3,000 per book, and more than 91% of eligible works — exceeding 440,000 books — have already been claimed, Mashable reported. Anthropic must also delete the pirated files it downloaded.

The settlement covers Anthropic’s past conduct in obtaining the files, but it does not shield the company from future claims, including lawsuits over AI model outputs. The judge rejected 54 objections and comments, including proposals to broaden the covered works, require attribution, or delete Anthropic’s models, finding those issues beyond the scope of the case. The case is closed, though the court will continue overseeing distribution of the settlement funds.