Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI platform, has agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement in the class action lawsuit Bartz v. Anthropic, resolving claims that it pirated millions of books from “shadow libraries” to train its large language models. The agreement, if approved, will deliver payouts of at least $3,000 to nearly half a million authors, marking the largest settlement in U.S. copyright history.
Federal judge William Alsup previously ruled that training AI on copyrighted works qualifies as fair use, but found Anthropic’s unauthorized downloads unlawful. Aparna Sridhar, Anthropic’s deputy general counsel, said the settlement closes legacy claims as the company continues building AI systems designed to advance research and extend human capabilities.
