Anthropic to pay €1.3bn in biggest copyright settlement on record

Key Points:

• A US federal judge approved a $1.5 billion settlement between AI company Anthropic and a group of authors, resolving the largest copyright class action in US history related to AI training data.
• The lawsuit, filed in August 2024, accused Anthropic of using pirated books to train its Claude chatbot, with the settlement offering authors and publishers $3,000 per covered work, totaling an estimated 500,000 works.
• The case followed a 2025 ruling that deemed training on lawfully acquired books as fair use but found Anthropic's storage of pirated books unlawful, exposing the company to potentially massive statutory damages.
• Over 91% of eligible authors have filed claims, and the settlement marks the first major resolution among numerous ongoing lawsuits against AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta over copyright issues in AI training.
• Both Anthropic and the plaintiffs expressed approval of the settlement, with the plaintiffs' lead attorney calling it the largest publicly known copyright recovery in history.