Federal Judge Grants Preliminary Approval to $1.5B Anthropic Copyright Settlement
A federal judge has given preliminary approval to a $1.5 billion settlement resolving a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic concerning unauthorized use of authors' works in AI training.
- • A $1.5 billion settlement by Anthropic was preliminarily approved by U.S. District Judge William Alsup.
- • This is the first settlement among ongoing copyright lawsuits against AI companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta.
- • The case involves authors accusing Anthropic of using copyrighted works without permission to train AI.
- • Judge Alsup called the settlement fair following requested revisions earlier in October 2025.
Key details
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in California has preliminarily approved a landmark $1.5 billion class action copyright settlement involving Anthropic, an AI company accused of using authors' copyrighted works without permission to train its AI models. This marks the first such resolution in a wave of lawsuits targeting major tech firms including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta over similar allegations regarding generative AI training data.
Judge Alsup described the settlement as fair after initially requesting revisions earlier in October 2025. The case represents a pivotal precedent in defining how copyrighted content is handled in AI development. The authors alleged improper use of their work without authorization, leading to the multi-billion dollar settlement offer, which will now undergo further judicial scrutiny before final approval.
This development is significant given the growing legal scrutiny over AI training practices and intellectual property rights. It underscores the intensifying regulatory and legal challenges AI companies face amid expanding AI capabilities and content appropriation debates.
While this settlement concerns Anthropic, parallel lawsuits continue against other tech giants, signaling ongoing efforts by content creators to claim rights and compensation related to AI models trained on copyrighted material. The judge’s preliminary approval provides a major step toward legal clarity and settlements in this domain.