Judge approves Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement

A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday granted final approval to Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement with authors who accused the AI company of using pirated books to train its chatbot Claude, bringing to a close the largest known copyright settlement in U.S. history.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin rejected objections from authors who argued the payout was too small, stating that complaints about the settlement's size were "not grounded in a realistic assessment of the overall risks and rewards of a trial."straitstimes

A Landmark Resolution

The case, one of dozens brought by copyright owners against AI companies over training data, is the first major U.S. class action of its kind to reach a final resolution. Authors and publishers filed claims covering over 91 percent of the more than 480,000 works included in the settlement, with each claimant estimated to receive roughly $3,100 per work.chatgptiseatingtheworld+1

"It is the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible," lead attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement.straitstimes

Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said the company was "pleased that more than 91 per cent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment."straitstimes

Origins of the Case

The writers sued Anthropic in 2024, arguing the company — backed by Amazon.com ↘ 0.94% and Alphabet ↘ 0.12% — used pirated versions of their books downloaded from shadow libraries like Library Genesis to teach Claude without permission or compensation.cnbc+1

Now-retired Judge William Alsup ruled in June 2025 that Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train Claude, but found the company violated copyrights by saving more than seven million pirated books to a "central library" not necessarily used for AI training. A trial had been scheduled for December 2025 with potential damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars before the parties reached a deal.straitstimes+1

Opt-Outs and Ongoing Litigation

Martinez-Olguin also awarded the plaintiffs' attorneys more than $101 million of the $187.5 million they requested in fees. Only about 350 class members opted out of the settlement by the February 2026 deadline. Several of those authors have since filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic seeking up to $150,000 per work in statutory damages — cases that remain ongoing.writerbeware+1