Anthropic to Pay $1.5bn to Settle Authors’ Piracy Lawsuit

Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5bn (£1.11bn) to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by authors who accused the company of stealing their books to train its AI models.

If approved by US District Judge William Alsup, the deal would mark the largest publicly reported copyright settlement in history, according to the authors’ lawyers.

The agreement comes just two months after Judge Alsup ruled that training AI models on books did not violate copyright law—but allowed a trial to proceed over Anthropic’s alleged use of pirated material.

On Friday, Anthropic said the settlement would resolve “the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims.”

Wider Industry Under Pressure

The case highlights growing scrutiny of AI companies, with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta also facing lawsuits over alleged copyright misuse.

Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet, has long promoted itself as an ethical player in the AI industry.

“We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organisations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems,” said Aparna Sridhar, Anthropic’s Deputy General Counsel.

The Authors’ Case

The lawsuit, filed last year, was led by best-selling authors including:

• Andrea Bartz (We Were Never Here)
• Charles Graeber (The Good Nurse)
• Kirk Wallace Johnson (The Feather Thief)

They alleged Anthropic built its Claude chatbot on a library of more than seven million pirated books, turning their work into the foundation of a multibillion-dollar business.

Judge Alsup’s June ruling found Anthropic’s use of the books to be “exceedingly transformative” and therefore legal—but refused to dismiss the case, noting the pirated copies at issue. The company had faced up to $150,000 in damages per copyrighted work.

A Landmark Deal

Plaintiffs’ lawyer Justin Nelson called the settlement “the first of its kind in the AI era.”

“It will provide meaningful compensation for each class work and sets a precedent requiring AI companies to pay copyright owners,” he said. “This sends a powerful message that taking copyrighted works from pirate websites is wrong.”

Experts say the settlement could shape future cooperation between AI developers and creators.

“You need fresh training data from human beings,” said Alex Yang, Professor at London Business School. “If you want to grant copyright to AI-generated content, you must also strengthen mechanisms that compensate humans for their original contributions.”