Judge rejects Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement as incomplete

A federal judge has rejected Anthropic’s record-breaking $1.5 billion settlement for a copyright lawsuit filed by writers, calling the agreement “nowhere close to complete.” Judge William Alsup expressed concern that class lawyers struck a deal that would be forced “down the throat of authors” without providing essential details about how the settlement would actually work.

What you should know: The lawsuit involves around 500,000 authors who sued Anthropic, an AI company, for using pirated copies of their works to train its large language models.

• Authors were expected to receive $3,000 per work under the settlement terms.
• One of the lawyers representing the authors called it a “landmark settlement” that “far surpasses any other known copyright recovery.”

Why the judge rejected it: Judge Alsup said he felt misled by the incomplete settlement details and was concerned about protecting class members’ interests.

• The settlement lacked crucial information including the list of works involved, the list of authors, the process for notifying class members, and the claim form authors would use to receive their payments.
• Alsup expressed having an “uneasy feeling about hangers on with all [that] money on the table,” explaining that class members often “get the shaft” in class actions once monetary settlements are established.

What happens next: The judge has set strict deadlines for lawyers to provide complete settlement details.

• Lawyers must submit a final list of works involved in the lawsuit by September 15.
• The works list, class members list, and claim form must all be examined and approved by the court by October 10 before preliminary approval can be granted.
• Alsup also required that class members receive “very good notice” about the settlement and be given the choice to opt in or out.

The bigger picture: This rejection highlights ongoing tensions around how AI companies use copyrighted content for training and the challenges of structuring fair compensation for affected creators at scale.