{"id":255605,"date":"2025-09-26T07:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255605\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T07:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:36:14","slug":"judge-approves-1-5-billion-copyright-settlement-between-ai-company-anthropic-and-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255605\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge approves $1.5 billion copyright settlement between AI company Anthropic and authors"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Thursday approved a $1.5 billion settlement<\/a> between artificial intelligence company Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train chatbots.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the preliminary approval in San Francisco federal court Thursday after the two sides worked to address his concerns about the settlement, which will pay authors and publishers about $3,000 for each of the books covered by the agreement. It does not apply to future works. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a fair settlement,\u201d Alsup said, though he added that distributing it to all parties will be \u201ccomplicated.\u201d About 465,000 books are on the list of works pirated by Anthropic, according to Justin Nelson, an attorney for the authors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some of the best lawyers in America in this courtroom and if anyone can do it, you can,” Alsup said. <\/p>\n

The Association of American Publishers called the settlement a \u201cmajor step in the right direction in holding AI developers accountable for reckless and unabashed infringement.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAnthropic is hardly a special case when it comes to infringement. Every other major AI developer has trained their models on the backs of authors and publishers, and many have sourced those works from the most notorious infringing sites in the world,\u201d said Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the publisher group. <\/p>\n

San Francisco-based Anthropic said it is pleased with the preliminary approval. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision will allow us to focus on developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems. As we\u2019ve consistently maintained, the court\u2019s landmark June ruling that AI training constitutes transformative fair use remains intact. This settlement simply resolves narrow claims about how certain materials were obtained,\u201d said Aparna Sridhar, deputy general counsel at Anthropic.<\/p>\n

The Authors Guild, meanwhile, said the settlement \u201cmarks a milestone in authors\u2019 fights against AI companies\u2019 theft of their works. It sends a clear signal to AI companies that infringement of authors\u2019 rights comes at a steep price and will undoubtedly push AI companies towards acquiring the books they want legally, through licensing.\u201d <\/p>\n

A Monday filing sought to convince the judge that the parties have set up a system designed to get out robust notice to all authors and publishers covered by the agreement, ensuring they get their cut of the pot if they want to sign off on the settlement or opt out to protect their legal rights moving forward. <\/p>\n

They also tried to assure him that the author and publishers group that cobbled the deal together are not doing any \u201cback room\u201d dealings that would hurt lesser-known authors. <\/p>\n

Alsup\u2019s main concern centered on how the claims process will be handled in an effort to ensure everyone eligible knows about it so the authors don\u2019t \u201cget the shaft.\u201d He had set a September 22 deadline for submitting a claims form for him to review before Thursday’s hearing to review the settlement again.<\/p>\n

The judge had raised worries about two big groups connected to the case \u2014 the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers \u2014 working \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d in ways that could pressure some authors to accept the settlement without fully understanding it. <\/p>\n

Attorneys for the authors said in Monday’s filing they believe the settlement will result in a high claims rate, respects existing contracts and is \u201cconsistent with due process\u201d and the court’s guidance. <\/p>\n

Alsup had dealt the case a mixed ruling in June<\/a>, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn\u2019t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites to help improve its Claude chatbot.<\/p>\n

Bestselling thriller novelist Andrea Bartz, who sued Anthropic with two other authors last year, said in a court declaration ahead of the hearing that she strongly supports the settlement and will work to explain its significance to fellow writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, authors and publishers are sending a message to AI companies: You are not above the law, and our intellectual property isn\u2019t yours for the taking,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Alsup also said in the courtroom Thursday that he plans to step down from the bench by the end of the year. President Bill Clinton nominated him for the federal bench in 1999.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this story from Providence, Rhode Island. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Thursday approved a $1.5 billion settlement between artificial intelligence company Anthropic…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":255606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[134706,691,347,738,64,356,57,25618,158,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-255605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-134706","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-courts","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-intellectual-property","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-u-s-news","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115269453894259788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}