AI startup Anthropic has reached a confidential settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by a group of fiction and nonfiction authors over the company’s use of copyrighted books to train its large language models.

The settlement, disclosed in a late August filing with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ends a closely watched case, Bartz v. Anthropic, that has been at the center of the ongoing debate over AI training data, copyright, and fair use.

The case originated after authors alleged that Anthropic used thousands of their books, many obtained from pirated sources, without proper authorization. In June, a lower court issued a mixed ruling: it sided with Anthropic on a key point, determining that its use of the books for AI training qualified as fair use under U.S. copyright law. However, because many of the books were sourced improperly, the company still faced significant financial penalties tied to its data acquisition practices.

Anthropic had been in the process of appealing the financial aspects of the ruling when the settlement was reached. Terms of the agreement remain undisclosed, and Anthropic declined to comment when contacted.

Following the June ruling, Anthropic publicly celebrated what it called a “major victory for generative AI,” telling NPR, “We believe it’s clear that we acquired books for one purpose only — building large language models — and the court clearly held that use was fair.”

The resolution comes amid growing legal battles over AI training data, with Google, OpenAI, and Meta also facing lawsuits from authors, publishers, and artists. The settlement could signal a shift toward quicker negotiations rather than prolonged court fights in high-stakes copyright disputes involving AI.

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