What Anthropic's $1.5B Copyright Settlement Means for Authors and the Future of Publishing

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Published by Greenleaf Book Group | Book Publishing & Author Branding Podcast »
What Anthropic's $1.5B Copyright Settlement Means for Authors and the Future of Publishing

5d ago 29:19

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Roughly 465,000 books were obtained illegally and used to train the generative AI model Claude. After a class action lawsuit, Anthropic has agreed to settle and pay $1.5B to impacted authors. You might be one of them!

In this episode of Published, Greenleaf Book Group CEO Tanya Hall explains everything authors and industry pros need to know about the huge copyright lawsuit against AI company Anthropic, and how authors can protect their work in the age of AI.

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If you've been following the growing tensions between authors and artificial intelligence companies, you may have heard rumblings about the Bartz v. Anthropic class action lawsuit. A group of authors including Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic, claiming the company used their books without permission to train its AI system Claude. They alleged that Anthropic had copied thousands of copyrighted works, many obtained from online piracy sites, to help Claude learn how to write and summarize text.

In September 2025, the case reached a proposed $1.5 billion settlement. Anthropic hasn't admitted wrongdoing, but it agreed to the payout to resolve the class action and avoid years of litigation. The settlement will compensate authors whose works were used without being legally purchased or licensed — including roughly 465,000 titles. It also sets a major precedent for how creative work will be valued and licensed in the AI era.

(Source: Authors Guild)

For any currently published authors, you can visit anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com to learn more about the case's status and whether you are a class member eligible for the settlement. They have a searchable database you can use to look up any books you've released and see if your book's data was scraped. Claims can be submitted any time before March 23, 2026.

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Learn more about publishing in Tanya's book, Ideas, Influence, and Income.

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