Bartz v. Anthropic (authors' class action; $1.5B settlement)
US District Court, N.D. California (Judge William Alsup; settlement approved by Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín) · 2024-08-19 (filed); 2025-06-23 (fair-use ruling); 2026-07-22 (final approval)
Authors sued Anthropic over books used to train Claude. A judge said training on bought books is legal but piracy is not, and Anthropic agreed to the largest copyright payout in history, about $3,000 per book.
What it calls for
- Creator compensation
- Data rights
- Liability
Scope
Class of authors of ~480,000 works; $3,000 per work
What actually happened
Judge Alsup held on 2025-06-23 that training on lawfully acquired books was fair use but downloading ~7M pirated books was not. Anthropic agreed on 2025-09-05 to pay $1.5B (about $3,000 per work) and destroy pirated copies (https://www.npr.org/2025/09/05/nx-s1-5529404/anthropic-settlement-authors-copyright-ai); preliminary approval 2025-09-25; final approval 2026-07-20 per the Authors Guild (https://authorsguild.org/news/court-grants-final-approval-anthropic-copyright-settlement/), reported by some outlets as 07-22 (https://www.jurist.org/news/2026/07/judge-approves-record-1-5-billion-settlement-involving-anthropic/). The Authors Guild reports 91% of eligible books were claimed (https://authorsguild.org/news/anthropic-settlement-update-91-percent-of-books-claimed/). Contrast: Kadrey v. Meta (June 2025) found Meta's training fair use on the record presented (https://perkinscoie.com/insights/update/court-sides-meta-fair-use-and-dmca-questions-leaves-door-open-future-challenges).