Wednesday, April 1, 2026

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AI Copyright

8 articles tagged with “AI Copyright”

Legal settlement document on mahogany desk with calculator showing $1.5B and sticky note '$112.5M to authors' — Bartz v. Anthropic
AI & Publishing

Anthropic Settlement: Attorney Fee Cut Adds $112.5M to Author Pool — Claims Deadline Today

A significant development in the Bartz v. Anthropic class action settlement emerged ahead of today's March 30 claims deadline: plaintiffs' attorneys voluntarily reduced their fee request from $300 million to $187.5 million on March 23, 2026, adding $112.5 million directly to the author and publisher claimant pool. The total settlement fund remains $1.5 billion, covering approximately 500,000 books used without permission to train Anthropic's Claude AI models. Eligible authors are estimated to receive approximately $3,000 per qualifying work, with payments typically split 50/50 between authors and publishers. A final approval hearing is scheduled for April 23, 2026, with distribution calculations expected by June 11, 2026.

OpenClassActions.org
AnthropicBartz SettlementAI Copyright
Author at desk reading AI law FAQ document with copyright symbols, publishing contracts, and lawsuit timeline in background
AI & Publishing

Jane Friedman Publishes Definitive AI Law FAQ for Authors — Navigating Copyright, Contracts, and the Lawsuit Landscape

Jane Friedman has published a comprehensive AI Law FAQ for Authors at janefriedman.com, covering copyright protection for AI-assisted work, the current lawsuit landscape, contract negotiation strategies, and emerging risks including pirate AI translations. The guide synthesises the Bartz v. Anthropic fair use ruling, the US Copyright Office's position on AI-generated content, the Authors Guild's recommended contract terms, and Bill Rosenblatt's warning that 'we're in for a good solid decade of uncertainty.' It is the most comprehensive practical legal guide for authors published since the AI copyright debate began in earnest.

Jane Friedman / Self-Publishing Advice Center
Jane FriedmanAI CopyrightAuthors
US Supreme Court building with scales of justice and AI neural network overlay representing copyright intent test
AI & Publishing

SCOTUS Cox Ruling Could Raise the Bar for Publisher Copyright Claims Against AI

The US Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Cox Communications v. Sony Music has established a new 'intent' test for contributory copyright infringement that could significantly affect publishers' legal strategies against AI firms. The 9-0 decision, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, holds that secondary liability requires either active inducement or a service 'tailored' for infringement with no substantial non-infringing use — mere knowledge of infringement is no longer sufficient. Publishers Weekly's Edward Nawotka identifies the ruling as a double-edged development: it raises the bar for claims against AI companies, but also opens a new strategic avenue centred on whether AI models are 'tailored' to produce creative outputs that substitute for copyrighted human works.

Publishers Weekly
SCOTUSCox CommunicationsAI Copyright
European Parliament hemicycle during vote with EU flag and open book in foreground — AI copyright resolution
Legal & Policy

EU Parliament Adopts Resolution on Generative AI Copyright — Proposes 5–7% Flat-Rate Fee on AI Turnover

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 'Copyright and generative artificial intelligence' by 460 votes to 71, with 88 abstentions. The resolution, led by Rapporteur Axel Voss, calls for a retroactive copyright global licence fee of 5–7% of AI developers' global turnover for past unauthorised uses of copyrighted works — estimated to generate approximately €420 million for creators. It mandates title-specific transparency obligations for AI training content, proposes a voluntary collective licensing framework managed through a EUIPO-administered 'licensing hub,' and asserts that EU copyright law applies to all AI systems available on the EU market regardless of where training data was processed.

European Parliament
EUEuropean ParliamentAI Copyright
Courthouse steps with stacked novels and scales of justice — Anthropic $1.5B authors settlement
AI & Publishing

Anthropic Reaches $1.5B Settlement with Authors — The Largest AI Copyright Payout in History

Anthropic has agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement in the Bartz v. Anthropic class action, making it the largest AI copyright payout in history. Authors who are sole copyright owners receive approximately $3,000 per qualifying work; those sharing rights with publishers receive a 50/50 split of roughly $1,500. The settlement fund is paid in four instalments: $300M in October 2025, $300M post-approval, and $450M each in September 2026 and 2027. The claims deadline is March 30, 2026, with a Final Approval Hearing before Judge William Alsup on April 23. The case centred on Anthropic's use of books from shadow libraries LibGen and PiLiMi to train Claude.

The Authors Guild
AnthropicAI CopyrightSettlement
A close-up shot of a human hand holding a pen, poised over a legal document with text visible, while in the background, a faint, blurred image of a glowing, abstract AI neural network is subtly overlaid.
AI & Publishing

UK Publishers Association Argues AI Copyright Exception is “Redundant”

A new study from the UK’s Publishers Association, titled “Content Superpower,” concludes that calls for a copyright exception for AI training are unnecessary. The report argues that a healthy and growing licensing market already exists, allowing AI developers to legally access publisher content. This finding strengthens the publishing industry’s position that AI companies should pay to use their works, rather than being granted a free pass to mine data. ---

Books+Publishing
AI CopyrightPublishing IndustryContent Licensing