Judge approves Anthropic’s $1.5 billion author copyright settlement

A federal judge has approved Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors, bringing a major copyright class action over books and AI training closer to an end. The order matters because it resolves claims tied to Anthropic’s alleged piracy of books while preserving a court ruling that its AI training on books was fair use.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the agreement Monday and rejected objections from authors who said the deal paid too little and gave too much to lawyers. According to her order, about 95% of the class received notice, and roughly 91% of affected authors and publishers have filed claims.

The judge said 350 class members opted out. Another 54 either objected or tried to opt out after the deadline, according to the order.

The settlement is expected to pay authors about $3,000 per covered work. Martínez-Olguín wrote that the amount was four times the minimum statutory damages available under copyright law.

Fee request reduced

Martínez-Olguín approved the settlement fund but cut the money set aside for class lawyers and the awards requested for the three named authors who led the case. Lawyers had first sought 20% of the fund, or $300 million, then reduced the request to 12.5%, or about $187 million.

The judge awarded less than 7% of the settlement fund, about $101 million. She wrote that the court would require lawyers to submit a post-distribution accounting after payments are made, and that fees could be reduced if the final work performed does not support the award.

The three lead plaintiffs also received less than they requested. Martínez-Olguín cut their service awards from $50,000 each to $15,000, finding the higher amount unreasonable despite their work on the litigation and settlement talks.

In a statement to Reuters, the lead plaintiffs said the settlement “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.”

Lawyers for the authors said in a press release that rightsholders had challenged Anthropic’s piracy and that support for the settlement was strong. Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement that the company was pleased that more than 91% of covered authors and publishers had claimed payment and looked forward to closing the matter.

Late opt-outs mostly denied

The court rejected most efforts to leave the settlement after the March 30 deadline. Some authors argued that notice came too late, that the opt-out window was too short and that the Copyright Act could allow larger damages in individual cases.

Martínez-Olguín allowed two late opt-outs after finding excusable neglect. According to the order, both were co-authors who did not receive settlement notices; one filed only days late, while the other faced a longer delay after suffering a stroke and also told the court she lived in Mexico, spoke Spanish and had not received a Spanish-language notice.

The judge denied a late request from Donald Passman, an entertainment lawyer and author of All You Need to Know About the Music Business, who sought to opt out at the end of June. Passman argued in a court filing that his book was an important industry text and that the estimated per-work payment did not adequately compensate him for his possible individual claims.

Anthropic opposed Passman’s request, arguing that allowing late withdrawals would threaten finality and slow payments to the class. Martínez-Olguín agreed, writing that granting the request could encourage other authors to try to leave the settlement after the deadline.

The judge also pointed to non-cash benefits in the agreement. According to her order, the settlement avoids expensive and uncertain litigation, requires Anthropic to destroy the covered works and leaves room for future lawsuits if Anthropic misuses works after the settlement.

This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.