Anthropic Settles AI Copyright Lawsuit with Authors

Aug 26, 2025
Anthropic has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit with authors over the use of books for AI training, avoiding potentially massive financial penalties.
Anthropic Settles AI Copyright Lawsuit with Authors
Image: Anthropic

Anthropic has settled a class action lawsuit with a group of authors regarding the use of books as training material for its AI models. The settlement was announced in a filing with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Previously, a lower court had ruled that Anthropic's use of the books qualified as fair use, but the company faced significant financial penalties due to the pirated nature of many of the books used.

The lawsuit, known as Bartz v. Anthropic, involved authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, who alleged that their works were used without permission. The settlement allows Anthropic to avoid a trial that could have resulted in damages exceeding $1 trillion, a sum that posed a significant threat to the company's financial stability.

The settlement is expected to be finalized by September 3, with further details to be disclosed. This case is one of several copyright-related legal challenges facing Anthropic, including a high-profile dispute with major record labels over the use of copyrighted lyrics in AI training.

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