US judge approves Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement with authors

A federal judge in California has approved Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by authors who accused the AI company of using unauthorised copies of their books to train its AI chatbot, Claude. The ruling makes the agreement the largest known settlement in a US copyright case and the first major settlement involving claims over the use of copyrighted works for AI model training.

On 20 July 2026, US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval to the settlement in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. In doing so, the judge rejected objections from some authors who argued that the settlement amount was insufficient, unfairly compensated plaintiffs’ attorneys, or excluded certain copyright holders. According to the court, those objections did not adequately reflect the legal uncertainties and risks associated with proceeding to trial.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2024 by a group of authors who alleged that Anthropic had obtained and retained pirated copies of their books without authorisation to develop Claude, its large language model. The case became one of a growing number of copyright lawsuits brought by authors, publishers, and media organisations against AI developers over the use of copyrighted material in AI training.

A significant turning point came in June 2025, when Judge William Alsup, who was then presiding over the case, ruled that Anthropic’s use of books to train its AI model constituted fair use under US copyright law. However, he also found that the company had infringed copyright by storing more than seven million pirated books in a central digital library that was not necessarily used for AI training. A separate trial had been scheduled to determine potential damages arising from that alleged infringement.

Anthropic reached the settlement with the plaintiffs in 2025 following Judge Alsup’s ruling. According to the company, more than 91% of eligible authors and publishers covered by the agreement have claimed their share of the settlement.

In a statement, Anthropic said the settlement was reached after the court’s fair use decision, which it noted ‘remains the law today,’ and expressed satisfaction that the matter is nearing completion.

The plaintiffs’ legal team also welcomed the decision. Lead attorney Justin Nelson described the agreement as a ‘historic settlement,’ stating that it represents the largest known copyright recovery in history and that distributions to eligible authors would begin as soon as possible.

Not all copyright holders accepted the settlement. Some authors and publishers chose to opt out of the class action and continue pursuing separate lawsuits against Anthropic. Those cases remain pending.