A federal judge has officially approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion class action settlement, addressing claims from authors who alleged the company utilized their copyrighted books to train its artificial intelligence models. As reported by Reuters, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín's order on Monday describes the settlement as providing "meaningful relief," with authors set to receive approximately $3,000 for each book identified as having been allegedly pirated by Anthropic. This per-book payment is being hailed as potentially the "largest known copyright recovery in history."
The $1.5 billion sum itself has been characterized by the plaintiffs' legal representation as the "largest known copyright recovery in history." The initial copyright lawsuit against Anthropic was launched in 2024 by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson. While now-retired Judge William Alsup previously granted Anthropic a partial victory, he subsequently approved a separate class action lawsuit asserting the company engaged in the "Napster-style downloading of millions of works." Anthropic reached the $1.5 billion settlement agreement in September 2025, which Judge Alsup later granted preliminary approval.
Anthropic's general counsel, Aparna Sridhar, expressed satisfaction to Reuters, stating, "We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment." She added, "We’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close." Despite this significant settlement, Anthropic continues to face additional copyright litigation, including suits from "Chicken Soup for the Soul" and several other authors who contend that the $3,000 per book compensation is insufficient.
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