Anthropic Faces $1.5 Billion Fine for Copyright Infringement

A federal judge in San Francisco has approved a record-breaking settlement between AI company Anthropic and authors who accused the firm of downloading their copyrighted books without permission. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín signed off on the agreement on July 20, marking it as the largest copyright class action settlement in history.

The lawsuit centered around how Anthropic acquired its book collection – specifically using pirated libraries LibGen and PiLiMi to build its database. The court had previously ruled that training AI models with copyrighted material is lawful under fair use provisions, but this case focused on the method of acquisition rather than the practice itself.

Anthropic’s unauthorized actions have led to a significant payout for authors and publishers whose works were affected. Under the settlement terms, those who can prove their books ended up on Anthropic’s ‘Works List’ are eligible to claim around $3,000 per book – roughly four times the typical minimum award for copyright infringement cases.

Over 91% of eligible titles have already been claimed by authors and publishers, with more than 440,000 books affected. As part of the agreement, Anthropic must delete the pirated files it downloaded from these libraries, effectively removing the infringing materials from its system.

The settlement does not release Anthropic from liability for future lawsuits over what its chatbot generates or new claims going forward. Judge Martínez-Olguín made clear that the agreement does not absolve Anthropic of responsibility for potential harm caused by its AI models. This means authors and publishers may still pursue action against the company in the future.

The court rejected all 54 objections filed by class members and third parties, including requests to expand the list of covered works or add non-monetary remedies like source attribution. The judge deemed these proposals beyond the scope of this lawsuit, sticking to the original agreement between Anthropic and the authors.

With the order finalized on July 20, the case is officially closed – although the court will continue to monitor how the settlement funds are distributed among affected authors. This process should provide some clarity for those impacted by Anthropic’s actions in acquiring its training data.