By Naomi Korn, CEO
In September 2025, the AI company Anthropic, who provide several AI and Gen.AI platforms such as “Claude”, announced a proposed settlement worth at least $1.5 billion with specific authors. These authors had alleged that the company used pirated digital copies of books to train its models. According to the Associated Press and Financial Times, the deal would compensate writers for roughly $3,000 per infringing work, covering an estimated 500,000 books.
However, the settlement has not yet been approved by the court. Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has criticised the agreement as “nowhere close to done” and expressed concerns about its completeness and fairness. The litigation remains ongoing, and the final outcome is still uncertain.[1]
Why This Matters for Professionals Managing Information
For information professionals, librarians and knowledge managers this case highlights several critical points:
1. Provenance is everything: knowing how a digital copy has been acquired and the restrictions about how it can be used are essential. E-books and other information in electronic form will be restricted in usage and must not be ingested into AI or used to train AI, unless permission is explicit to do so.
2. Usage by AI has its limits: courts may accept training on legitimately acquired collections, but pirated or unauthorised copies potentially results in huge liability.
3. Governance and policy matter: documentation, rights verification, and clear workflows for computational use of collections will increasingly protect institutions.
4. Read the small print: acquiring new software or enabling others to use your information in their software comes with risks and potential liability.
Learn to Implement Best Practices with Naomi Korn Associates
Are you looking for training which will equip you with the skills to copyright issues? Invest in your information security skills today with our Copyright courses, upcoming dates include:
- Copyright Essentials (1& 2 Oct 2025)
- Copyright Licensing (14 Oct 2025)
- Copyright and Commissioning (16 Oct 2025)
- AI and Information Law: Privacy and Ethical Considerations (17 Oct 2025)
- Exceptions to Copyright (20 Oct 2025)
Each of our intermediate courses can be taken as an individual course or combined as part of our Intermediate Certificate (available in Copyright and in Data Protection). Book any of our courses via our Online Training page or contact our Training Manager at info@naomikorn.com.
[1] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/anthropic-judge-blasts-copyright-pact-as-nowhere-close-to-done