Anthropic Secures Major Legal Victory in AI-Related Copyright Case Against Authors

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Anthropic’s use of authors’ books to train its AI system, Claude, was legal under U.S. copyright law, citing “fair use.” The decision favorably impacts tech companies amid ongoing legal disputes over AI training practices. Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson had previously sued Anthropic, claiming the company used pirated versions of their works without permission or compensation. While the court found that Anthropic’s AI training could be considered transformative, it also determined that storing the authors’ books in a “central library” violated their copyrights. Judge William Alsup emphasized that Anthropics’ work aimed to create new content rather than simply replicate existing material. This ruling is significant as it marks a pivotal moment in defining fair use in the generative AI context, amid broader concerns from copyright holders about potential threats to their livelihoods.

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