Bartz v. Anthropic — Author Class Action and $1.5B Settlement (N.D. Cal.)
N.D. Cal. · Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:24-cv-05417 (N.D. Cal.)
Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic over its use of pirated-book datasets to train Claude. In June 2025 Judge William Alsup ruled that training on lawfully purchased books was fair use. The piracy claims (LibGen ingestion) proceeded toward settlement; in September 2025 Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion class settlement covering ~500,000 works. Judge Alsup granted preliminary approval September 25, 2025 and final approval July 20, 2026. The appeal period runs through August 19, 2026; class members will not receive payments until at least end of 2026.
Technical detail
Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:24-cv-05417 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 19, 2024; Judge William H. Alsup). June 23, 2025 Order: training Claude on lawfully purchased books constituted transformative fair use; downloading pirated copies from Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror was not fair use and constituted infringement. Sept. 5, 2025: parties announced $1.5B class settlement covering ~500,000 works; preliminary approval Sept. 25, 2025; final approval granted July 20, 2026. Appeal period ends August 19, 2026; payments expected end of 2026 at earliest.
Who is protected: Class of authors whose works appeared in LibGen / PiLiMi / Books3 corpora used by Anthropic
Who must comply: Anthropic PBC
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | N.D. Cal. |
|---|---|
| Level | Federal |
| Status | In effect |
| Protection strength | Stronger protection |
| Effective date | 2025-09-05 |
| Citation | Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:24-cv-05417 (N.D. Cal.) |
| Topics | copyright and training data |
| Last verified | 2026-08-09 |
| Official source | Bartz v. Anthropic — CourtListener 3:24-cv-05417 ↗ |
More AI rules in N.D. Cal.
- Tremblay v. OpenAI · Blocked / in litigation
- Silverman v. OpenAI · Blocked / in litigation
- Kadrey v. Meta · Blocked / in litigation
- Chabon v. OpenAI · Blocked / in litigation
- Chabon v. Meta · Blocked / in litigation
- Andersen v. Stability AI · Blocked / in litigation
Related copyright and training data rules elsewhere
- Hachette v. Google (Gemini AI copyright) · Blocked / in litigation
- Copyright Office AI Guidance · In effect
- USPTO AI Inventorship Guidance · Repealed / replaced
- NYT v. OpenAI / Microsoft · Blocked / in litigation
- Authors Guild v. OpenAI · Blocked / in litigation
- Getty Images v. Stability AI (US) · Blocked / in litigation
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