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Judge approves Anthropic’s $1.5B book settlement

A judge approved Anthropic’s $1.5 billion book piracy settlement, paying authors about $3,000 per allegedly pirated book.

Image: The Verge

Image: The Verge

A federal judge has approved Anthropic’s $1.5 billion class-action settlement with authors who accused the company of training its AI models on copyrighted books, Reuters reported.

In an order issued Monday, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said the agreement would provide “meaningful relief.” The settlement will pay authors about $3,000 for each book allegedly pirated by Anthropic.

“Meaningful relief.”

— Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín

The plaintiffs' law firm called the agreement the “largest known copyright recovery in history.” Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson filed the initial copyright lawsuit against Anthropic in 2024.

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Now-retired Judge William Alsup gave Anthropic a partial victory last year, but also approved a separate class-action case alleging that the company carried out the “Napster-style downloading of millions of works.” Anthropic agreed to the settlement in September 2025, and Alsup later granted it preliminary approval.

Anthropic general counsel Aparna Sridhar told Reuters that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their payments.

“We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment. We’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close.”

— Aparna Sridhar, Anthropic general counsel

The company still faces copyright lawsuits from Chicken Soup for the Soul and several other authors, who argue that $3,000 per book is insufficient.

Ava Chen

AI Editor

Ava covers the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, from foundational models and research labs to the real-world economics of intelligence. With a background in computational linguistics, she cuts through the hype to find out what actually works. She firmly believes that benchmarks are just marketing until reproduced in the wild.

via The Verge

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