Anthropic Pays $1.5B in Historic Copyright Settlement

A federal judge has approved a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors and publishers whose works were used to train its Claude AI chatbot, marking the largest copyright class action settlement in history. Roughly 500,000 works will receive $3,000 each, with over 91% of eligible claimants accepting payment. The case centered on Anthropic obtaining copyrighted books from pirate websites like Library Genesis. While a prior ruling found AI training on copyrighted material constitutes fair use, sourcing from piracy sites did not qualify. Anthropic must now destroy all pirated material. The broader question of AI copyright legality remains unresolved across numerous pending lawsuits.