Judge puts Anthropic’s $1.5 billion book piracy settlement on hold

image via The Verge

September 9, 2025, 9:45 PM

• •Judge Alsup has concerns about the terms of Anthropic's $1.5 billion book piracy settlement.
• •The judge is worried about authors being forced into a deal and needs more information about the claims process.
• •The settlement would provide authors around $3,000 for each book Anthropic is accused of stealing.
• •Judge Alsup will revisit the settlement during another hearing on September 25th.

A federal judge has put Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement with authors on hold due to concerns about the terms of the agreement, particularly the compensation of around $3,000 per book. Judge William Alsup expressed worries that the class action lawyers might be forcing a deal on authors and needs more information about the claims process. The judge will revisit the settlement, which resolves a class action lawsuit accusing Anthropic of training AI models on copyrighted books, during another hearing on September 25th. Maria Pallante, CEO of the Association of American Publishers, criticized the judge's lack of understanding of the publishing industry.

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