A federal judge declined to finalize Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors on Thursday, requesting more details about attorney fees and payments to lead plaintiffs before signing what would be the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez Olguin grilled attorneys on several unresolved issues during a May 14 hearing in San Francisco. This leaves about 120,000 authors and copyright holders waiting for a resolution to the case, which has been ongoing since 2024.
A humanitarian accused of downloading more than 7 million pirated books
The lawsuit accused Anthropic of downloading more than 7 million pirated books from the LibGen and PiLiMi shadow libraries to train its models.
Retired Judge William Alsop ruled in June 2025 that Anthropic’s use of books for AI training was fair use, as long as the works were obtained legally. But he found that storing pirated copies in the Central Library beyond training purposes was not protected.
This ruling led to a trial, originally scheduled for December 2025, where… Anthropic It faced potential damage amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. Instead of going to court, Anthropic agreed to the $1.5 billion settlement.
Alsup initially approved it in September 2025. The case was later reassigned to Martinez-Olguin after Alsup retired.
Authors and publishers have filed claims covering more than 91% of the roughly 480,000 eligible works in the settlement class, according to court filings cited by Reuters. This participation rate dwarfs the 9% average in U.S. consumer class actions, based on a 2019 FTC report.
“This claims rate is another reason why this settlement is so historic and shows overwhelming support for separation,” said lead plaintiff’s attorney Justin Nelson of Susman Godfrey. Reuters In April.
Each title will receive a minimum of $3,000 before costs and fees, split between authors and publishers. According to the Authors Guild. Self-published authors and those whose rights are restored will retain the full amount.
The standard default split between publishers and authors of non-educational works is 50/50.
Some authors chose not to subscribe to humanitarian settlement
The Anthropic settlement drew criticism from some authors, who argued that the total amount was too low compared to the scale of the alleged hacking.
last Authors They challenged the proposed attorney’s fees. The plaintiffs’ law firms, Susman Godfrey and Leif Capraser, are seeking $187.5 million, or 12.5% of the fund. That’s less than the $300 million they originally sought after Alsup paid in December.
More than 25 writers withdrew from the settlement altogether. That group, which includes novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, filed a new lawsuit against Anthropic in California on May 13, one day before the final approval hearing.
Several other authors and publishers with similar claims have separate lawsuits against the company.
