The conversation around AI and copyright continues. This week, a US judge has approved a US$1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors whose books were allegedly used to train the company's AI model, Claude. It's the largest copyright class action settlement in US history, and for many writers and publishers, it means compensation is on the way.
Here's what the settlement means, and how to find out who is affected.
What is the Anthropic copyright settlement?
The lawsuit was first brought in 2024 by a group of authors who alleged that Anthropic downloaded millions of books from piracy websites and stored them as part of a central library used to develop its AI models. Per Reuters, Anthropic denied wrongdoing but agreed to settle the claims before the case proceeded to trial over damages.
The case also produced a legal distinction. Earlier rulings found that training an AI model on legally obtained books could qualify as fair use under US copyright law. However, the court separately found that acquiring those books through pirate sources raised copyright infringement issues, paving the way for the settlement.
Who could be eligible for compensation?
Quite a few people. The settlement applies to approximately 482,000 books identified as being part of the disputed collection. Eligibility depends on who owns the copyright for each title, which may be the author, the publisher or both, depending on the publishing agreement.
For example, according to The Guardian, Bloomsbury, the publishing house which looks after Sarah J Maas, has 14,087 titles listed. They'll reportedly receive around US$3,000 per title.
The final amount each claimant receives will depend on how many valid claims are approved and how ownership of each title is divided.
How do you check whether your work is included?
This process is relatively straightforward. There is an official settlement website, which includes a Works List Lookup, allowing copyright holders to search for individual titles and confirm whether they form part of the settlement.
If your book appears on the list, it means it was included in the class action. If it doesn't appear, that particular work is not covered by the settlement.
It's worth noting that the deadline to submit new claims has already passed (March 30, 2026). However, authors and publishers can still use the lookup tool to confirm whether their works were included in the case and review the court documents explaining the settlement.
