September 26, 2025

In a sizzling courtroom in California, a federal judge made a big splash by giving preliminary approval to a huge $1.5 billion settlement in a copyright case against the AI company Anthropic. This step, announced on Thursday by the authors’ representatives, marks the very first hand in a row of lawsuits hitting tech titans like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta for using copyrighted works to train their AI software. Judge William Alsup, who is keeping a close eye on this fight, said the class-action settlement looks "fair" during the hearing. He had earlier pressed the parties for more answers before giving this initial nod. Now, he must decide on the final thumbs-up after informing all affected authors and letting them file their claims. The brave plaintiffs Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson celebrated Alsup’s decision, saying, "this brings us one step closer to real accountability for Anthropic and puts all AI companies on notice they can’t shortcut the law or override creators’ rights." Meanwhile, Maria Pallante, the head of the Association of American Publishers, called the deal “a major step in the right direction in holding AI developers accountable for reckless and unabashed infringement.” The authors’ charge is clear as day: Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Alphabet, used millions of pirate copies of books to teach its AI assistant Claude how to respond to human questions. Earlier this year, Judge Alsup ruled Anthropic made "fair use" of the content for training Claude but went too far by saving over 7 million pirated books in a “central library” possibly used beyond training. A trial was lined up for December to decide the final amount Anthropic owed — with predictions swirling about damages running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Aparna Sridhar, Anthropic’s deputy general counsel, welcomed the decision, emphasizing it lets the company focus on building "safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems." This settlement is no ordinary event. It’s the start of a new era where AI firms must play by the rules or face big consequences—a spicy twist for the future of artificial intelligence!

Read More at Thehindu →

Tags: Anthropic, Ai copyright settlement, Class-action lawsuit, U.s. district judge alsup, Generative ai, Authors' rights,