A federal judge ruled this week that artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic did not violate U.S. copyright law when it used books to train its large language model, Claude — a pivotal win for the tech industry’s fair use defense. However, the judge sharply criticized Anthropic’s decision to stockpile millions of pirated books in a digital “central library,” a move he said was not protected under fair use and could lead to significant damages.
As reported by Reuters, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that training AI with copyrighted books constituted “exceedingly transformative” use. Comparing Claude’s development to how humans learn from reading, Alsup ruled that Anthropic’s use of works by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson to teach its system how to respond to human prompts fell squarely within the bounds of fair use.
But in a detailed opinion, Alsup drew a firm line between training AI and collecting unauthorized content. He found Anthropic unlawfully downloaded more than 7 million pirated books — including multiple copies of the plaintiffs’ works — to build a permanent research archive. He rejected the company’s claim that such a repository was reasonably necessary for AI training.
“Pirating copies to build a research library without paying for it… was not a transformative use,” Alsup wrote.
Anthropic, which is backed by Amazon and Google, could now face statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work. A trial set for December will determine the total owed.
In a statement to Reuters, Anthropic said it was “pleased” with the court’s recognition of AI training as transformative, calling the decision “a win for scientific progress.”
The case is one of several pending lawsuits against AI companies by authors and copyright holders over the use of protected works to develop generative AI systems.
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