Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle claims that it illegally used authors’ copyrighted books to train its Claude chatbot.
The settlement figure was disclosed on Friday (September 5) by the authors in the case, including Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and Charles Graeber. It was first reported last month that a settlement had been reached, although neither party reported a figure at the time.
News of the $1.5 billion settlement figure arrives just days after Anthropic raised another $13 billion in funding, valuing it at $183 billion, nearly tripling its $61.5 billion valuation in March.
The Series F round was led by San Francisco-headquartered investment management firm ICONIQ, whose investment portfolio includes AI audio company ElevenLabs, Tencent Music Entertainment, Airbnb, Alibaba, Canva, Uber and Zoom.
The resolution of the authors’ case could prove significant for Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO, who are pursuing their own copyright lawsuit against the $183 billion-valued AI company.
The Human Artistry Campaign — which represents recording artists, songwriters, composers, publishers, independent record labels, journalists, photographers, actors, athletes and more — welcomed the settlement: “This settlement is a huge victory not only for the authors involved, but for all writers, artists, and creators who know that their work has value and their rights should be respected when it comes to AI uses.”
“We hope this is just the first of many AI companies to be held accountable for their theft of creative work, and that it helps set a precedent that consent and compensation for works used in AI training are nonnegotiable.”
Human Artistry Campaign
Added The Human Artistry Campaign: “We hope this is just the first of many AI companies to be held accountable for their theft of creative work, and that it helps set a precedent that consent and compensation for works used in AI training are nonnegotiable.”
In the separate lawsuit filed by the music publishers against Anthropic in 2023, it is alleged that its Claude chatbot was trained on song lyrics without permission.
However, details that emerged during the authors’ lawsuit have given the music publishers fresh evidence in their own case. In the authors’ case, Judge William Alsup found that Anthropic torrented 5 million files from the pirate online library LibGen, 2 million files from Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi), and nearly 200,000 records in the Books3 collection.
Crucially for the music publishers, lawyers discovered that LibGen “contains well over a thousand illegal copies of sheet music, songbooks, and other lyric-related books,” including works specifically involved in their lawsuit such as Tiny Dancer (written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin), A Thousand Miles (written by Vanessa Carlton), and 7 Rings (recorded by Ariana Grande).
The music publishers alleged last month that Anthropic hid the fact that it used BitTorrent to pirate these materials, only discovering this through the separate authors’ lawsuit.
“Inexplicably, Anthropic never disclosed to publishers in this case that it had used BitTorrent to copy books containing their works from pirate sites in this manner, despite publishers’ discovery requests calling for exactly this type of information,” lawyers for the music publishers wrote in their recent court filing.
The music publishers are now seeking to amend their complaint to include new charges against Anthropic for distributing copyrighted lyrics without a license, not just using them for training.
Under the settlement agreement with the book authors, Anthropic agreed to pay $3,000 per work to a settlement fund that is expected to cover roughly 500,000 titles. The figure could rise if additional works are discovered. The company also vowed to destroy the original files of works torrented or downloaded from Library Genesis or Pirate Library Mirror, as well as any copies derived from them.
“This landmark settlement far surpasses any other known copyright recovery. It is the first of its kind in the AI era.”
Justin Nelson, Susman Godfrey LLP
The $1.5 billion fund will be distributed among rightsholders whose works appear on the certified class list. The settlement covers only past conduct. It does not grant Anthropic a license to use the covered works for future training.
The payout still requires approval from Judge Alsup, who is set to hold a preliminary hearing today (September 8). A final hearing could take place in 2026. Potential class members will be able to review the list of covered works and submit claims once the court grants preliminary approval. Information will be available at AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com.
Co-lead plaintiffs’ counsel Justin Nelson of Susman Godfrey LLP said in a statement issued to MBW: “This landmark settlement far surpasses any other known copyright recovery. It is 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. This settlement sends a powerful message to AI companies and creators alike that taking copyrighted works from these pirate websites is wrong.”
Co-lead plaintiffs’ Rachel Geman of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP added: “Piracy harms those who devote their lives to writing and publishing books that benefit us all, and companies that exploit piracy and endanger the creative industries must be accountable.”
“Piracy harms those who devote their lives to writing and publishing books that benefit us all, and companies that exploit piracy and endanger the creative industries must be accountable.”
Rachel Geman, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP
The agreement has drawn backing from industry groups. Maria Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, said: “I am hopeful that the settlement will receive wide support from copyright owners.
“Beyond the monetary terms, the proposed settlement provides enormous value in sending the message that Artificial Intelligence companies cannot unlawfully acquire content from shadow libraries or other pirate sources as the building blocks for their models.”
“Beyond the monetary terms, the proposed settlement provides enormous value in sending the message that Artificial Intelligence companies cannot unlawfully acquire content from shadow libraries or other pirate sources as the building blocks for their models.”
Maria Pallante, Association of American Publishers
Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors’ Guild described the settlement as “an excellent result for authors, publishers, and rightsholders generally, sending a strong message to the AI industry that there are serious consequences when they pirate authors’ works to train their AI, robbing those least able to afford it.”
The authors’ lawyers described the lawsuit as “the largest publicly reported recovery in the history of US copyright litigation.” They said the settlement “gives hope to creators of every kind including the writers, musicians, artists, journalists, and others seeking to enforce creators’ rights in dozens of other pending cases.”
Music Business Worldwide
