Anthropic will pay out $1.5B to settle allegations of book piracy, used to train its AI

Well-known authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued the company over what their lawyer calls “brazen infringement.”

AI startup Anthropic will pay a $1.5 billion settlement after being accused of copyright violations and piracy by illegally downloading books to train its AI's language models. (Scripps News)

AI startup Anthropic will pay a $1.5 billion settlement after being accused of copyright violations and piracy — a case that legal experts say is a first-of-its-kind, that "will be known by its first name to law students for a long time."

Well-known authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued the company over what their lawyer calls "brazen infringement."

They alleged, according to the complaint, that "Anthropic downloaded known pirated versions of the works, made copies of them, and fed those pirated copies into its models" to train them.

"Anthropic is arguing, 'no, this was a transformative work under copyright law.' And transformative just means that the final product is completely different, that it's not infringing on your original work. But then the authors argue, 'but it was our work that created it,'" Nouvelle Gonzalo, who specializes in corporate law, covering intellectual property and copyright, tells Scripps News.

The judge ultimately sided with Anthropic on the copyright issue, finding the company’s usage counted as “fair use” and was therefore legal. But he also ruled that downloading them from a shadow library online constituted piracy.

This case is "the unique combination of sophistication and maybe stupidity," JD Harriman, partner at Foundation Law Group, told Scripps News. "Everyone knows [piracy] is wrong. I mean, ever since LimeWire and pirated copies of songs, everyone knows what that is wrong."

"This landmark settlement far surpasses any other known copyright recovery," said Justin Nelson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in a statement to Scripps News...

1 posted on 09/05/2025 3:35:26 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

$1.5 BILLION?

well they could alway play Powerball and hope for the best, but then again why try when I will certainly win.

2 posted on 09/05/2025 3:38:21 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free, the USA will never have equal justice under the law)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794