Key facts
- A U.S. federal judge approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement.
- Authors sued Anthropic, alleging their copyrighted books were used without permission to train the Claude chatbot.
- The settlement is the largest known copyright recovery in U.S. history.
- Authors and publishers will receive $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 works covered by the settlement.
- Some authors and publishers opted out of the settlement and are pursuing separate lawsuits.
A U.S. federal judge has given final approval to Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement, resolving a class-action copyright lawsuit filed by authors who accused the AI company of using their copyrighted books without permission to train its Claude chatbot. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the deal on July 20, marking it as the largest known copyright recovery in U.S. history and the first major resolution in a wave of lawsuits against AI companies.
Under the terms of the settlement, authors and publishers will receive $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 works covered. More than 91% of eligible parties have already filed claims, according to Anthropic. The case followed a June 2025 ruling by then-presiding judge William Alsup, who found that while training Claude on lawfully acquired books qualified as fair use, Anthropic's storage of millions of pirated books did not, potentially exposing the company to significant statutory damages.
Anthropic's deputy general counsel, Aparna Sridhar, welcomed the resolution, while lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Justin Nelson, described it as a historic recovery. However, some authors and publishers objected to the payout, arguing it was too small, and have opted out to pursue separate lawsuits. This case is one of many similar lawsuits pending against other AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta.