Anthropic Faces a New $75 Million Lawsuit for Pirating Books to Train Claude AI

Anthropic, an AI developer, is facing a new $75 million lawsuit from authors who claim the company pirated copyrighted books to train its AI named Claude. This legal action adds to the mounting pressure on the company from authors who believe their works have been exploited without permission or fair compensation.

The lawsuit highlights the ongoing battle between authors and AI companies in the industry. The complaint accuses Anthropic of copying books from pirate libraries to train Claude and seeks damages of $75 million. The authors claim that the company sourced their works from shadow libraries that host copyrighted material without the creators’ consent.

Furthermore, the plaintiffs argue that Anthropic never sought licensing or offered payment before using their books for training purposes. While training AI on legally acquired books is considered fair use, downloading pirated copies is deemed a separate act of infringement, making piracy the central legal issue in this case.

The authors believe that the existing settlements undervalue their works, as copyright law allows for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work. They argue that smaller per-book payouts fail to reflect the true extent of the alleged infringement.

This lawsuit comes in addition to another class action filed against Anthropic in June over its Claude Max subscription plans. The earlier suit alleged that the advertised usage boosts under certain subscription tiers did not deliver as promised, leading to demands for refunds for subscribers.

Anthropic has previously settled a landmark class action for around $1.5 billion, paying authors approximately $3,000 each for an estimated 500,000 pirated books covered under the agreement. Some authors opted out of this settlement, retaining the right to pursue their own individual claims.

The new $75 million lawsuit reflects this strategy, allowing plaintiffs to seek larger damages per work and emphasizing the ongoing legal challenges faced by AI companies in relation to copyright infringement. As the legal pressure on Anthropic continues to build, it remains to be seen how these cases will ultimately impact the company and the broader AI industry.