A Better Newspaper

## Overview Anthropic has agreed to what plaintiffs describe as "the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history, larger than any other copyright class action settlement or any individual copyright case litigated to final judgment" (IPWatchdog, September 5). The case, brought by author-plaintiffs Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, centers on Anthropic's use of copyrighted books to train its Claude AI models. ## Timeline - **August 26**: Anthropic and plaintiffs executed "a binding term sheet intended to memorialize the terms of a proposed class settlement," leading Anthropic to request its Ninth Circuit appeal and Emergency Motion to stay district court proceedings be held in abeyance (IPWatchdog, August 27). - **August 27**: Anthropic filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit requesting the appeal be held in abeyance (IPWatchdog, September 5). - **September 5**: An "Unopposed Motion for Preliminary Approval of Class Settlement" was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (IPWatchdog, September 5). - **September 8**: Court held an initial preliminary approval hearing (IPWatchdog, September 24). - **September 24**: Plaintiffs filed a "Supplemental Brief in Support of Motion for Preliminary Approval of Class Settlement," addressing outstanding issues including the plan of distribution, following the court's initial hearing (IPWatchdog, September 24). The settlement is reported at a value of $1.5 billion. ## Why It Matters The case is widely seen as a potential precedent-setter for the AI industry's approach to copyright liability in model training (IPWatchdog, August 27). Its outcome—including the size of the recovery and the structure of the distribution plan—could shape how other AI companies value litigation risk from training-data copyright claims, and how authors' groups and publishers pursue similar claims against other AI developers. ## Key Entities - **Anthropic**: AI company and defendant - **Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, Kirk Wallace Johnson**: Named plaintiffs - **U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California**: Trial court overseeing settlement approval - **U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit**: Appellate court where Anthropic's appeal is held in abeyance