$1.5B Anthropic Settlement Ends Authors’ Class Action Lawsuit Over Alleged AI Copyright Infringement

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A $1.5 billion class action settlement will end litigation that alleged AI developer Anthropic used copyrighted written works to train its “Claude” family of artificial intelligence language models without the proper licenses or consent.

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The Anthropic class action settlement received preliminary approval from the court on September 25, 2025.

The AI settlement covers all beneficial or legal copyright owners of any book in the Library Genesis (LibGen) or Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi) dataset versions downloaded by Anthropic. To be covered by the settlement, a book found in the applicable LibGen or PiLiMi versions must have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) or Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) that was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within five years of publication, and was either registered before August 10, 2022 or within three months of a work’s publication.

If you are unsure whether your copyrighted work(s) are covered by the class action settlement, you can search this list of works included in the deal.

The court-approved website for the Anthropic settlement can be found at AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com.

Anthropic settlement class members who submit a timely, valid claim form will be able to receive a pro rata, or equal share, payment from the $1.5 billion settlement fund for each allegedly infringed work. Per the website, the ultimate amount a class member may receive from the Anthropic settlement will depend on how many works they own that are covered by the deal, the total number of valid claims that are filed, and whether multiple class members submit a valid claim form for a particular work.

The settlement website stipulates that if a covered work has more than one legal and/or beneficial copyright holder, the payment for that work will be distributed equally among all copyright holders.

Additionally, should the number of works covered by the settlement exceed 500,000, Anthropic has agreed to add $3,000 per each additional work to the settlement fund, which will be distributed in the same manner as the initial $1.5 billion.

To file a claim form online, Anthropic class members can visit this page of the settlement website and log in with the unique ID found in their copy of the settlement notice. If a class member does not have a unique ID, they can enter their information for the claim form here.

Alternatively, a PDF of the claim form is available to print, fill out and mail back to the address listed on the form.

All claim forms must be submitted online or postmarked by March 23, 2026.

Anthropic has also agreed, as part of the settlement, to destroy all files it downloaded from LibGen and PiLiMi, as well as any copies thereof, except scanned copies.

A hearing is scheduled for April 23, 2026 to determine whether the settlement will receive final approval from the court. Payments will begin to be distributed only after final approval has been granted and any appeals have been resolved.

The Anthropic class action lawsuit claimed that AI developer Anthropic infringed the copyright of hundreds of thousands of books by downloading them from pirated databases, LibGen and PiLiMi, in order to train its AI large language models, which it markets under the name “Claude.”

Did you know that some class action settlements require no proof to submit a claim? Check out the latest open class action settlements.