Murphy Ltd’s Latest AI Settlement: Payouts, Timing, and Opt-Out

The Anthropic AI copyright settlement is a $1.5 billion deal, the largest copyright settlement in American history, resolving claims that Anthropic downloaded hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books from pirate sites to train its Claude chatbot.¹ Eligible authors and publishers can expect roughly $2,932 per qualifying book after fees, with interest expected to push that figure higher. No money has been paid out yet. According to the Authors Guild, distributions are unlikely to begin before late fall 2026, and only after the court grants final approval and any appeals are resolved.²

What Anthropic Was Accused Of

Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic in August 2024 in the Northern District of California.³ Court documents indicated Anthropic downloaded more than seven million books from two shadow libraries, Library Genesis (LibGen) in June 2021 and Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi) in July 2022, and used them to train the large language models behind Claude.⁴

In June 2025, Judge William Alsup split the case down the middle. He ruled that training an AI on copyrighted books was “transformative—spectacularly so” and constituted fair use. But he held that downloading pirated copies was a separate act that fair use did not excuse, because obtaining pirated material was not “reasonably necessary” for training.¹ The piracy claims were ordered toward trial, and on July 17, 2025 the court certified a class limited to those claims.⁵

With statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work on the table, Anthropic settled rather than face a jury.

Who Qualifies for a Payment

The class covers anyone who holds the legal or beneficial right to reproduce a book that Anthropic downloaded from LibGen or PiLiMi. Both authors and publishers are included. To qualify, a work must:

Have an ISBN or ASIN, and
Be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office either within three months of first publication, or within five years of publication and before the date Anthropic downloaded the shadow library containing it.⁵

Non-U.S. authors and publishers are included if their registered works appear on the official list.⁴ The claims deadline was March 30, 2026. Roughly 93% of the more than 506,000 potential class members filed claims before it closed.⁶ If you missed that deadline, you are outside the recovery window unless the court decides otherwise.

How Much Each Book Is Worth

The fund covers roughly 482,460 distinct works. Before fees and costs that comes to about $3,000 per title.⁴ After requested deductions of about $208.6 million for legal fees, expenses, and administration, the net fund is estimated at roughly $1.29 billion, putting the per-work payout at approximately $2,932. That figure is expected to grow with interest accruing on the money already deposited.²

How the Money Splits Between Authors and Publishers

For trade and university press titles, the default is a 50/50 split between the publisher side and the author side. Self-published authors, and authors whose rights have reverted to them, receive 100% of the award. For educational texts, there is no default split; the underlying contract controls. Disputes between co-owners go to a special master appointed by the court.⁵

What the Settlement Does Not Cover

The release is narrower than the headline number suggests. It cuts off Anthropic’s liability only for conduct before August 25, 2025. It does not license future AI training. It does not cover claims based on AI-generated outputs. And it does not release claims for any book that is not on the official works list.⁷

As part of the deal, Anthropic must destroy the original files it downloaded from LibGen and PiLiMi along with any copies derived from them. The company also certified that it did not use LibGen or PiLiMi materials in any commercial models.

When the Money Will Move

Anthropic is paying the settlement in four installments: $300 million deposited in October 2025, another $300 million within one week of final approval, $450 million by September 2026, and a final $450 million by September 2027.⁵ The first installment is sitting in an interest-bearing escrow account.

Nothing goes out until final approval is granted. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who inherited the case after reassignment, held the fairness hearing on May 14, 2026 at the San Francisco Federal Courthouse. Seven objectors presented, and the judge took the matter under submission without ruling from the bench. She ordered Anthropic to file a supplemental brief on whether late opt-outs should be honored.⁸

The 53 formal objections filed before the hearing raised concerns that the $3,000-per-work figure was inadequate against potential statutory damages, that the settlement favored publishers over authors, that more than two million foreign and unregistered works were excluded, that group copyright registrations were being counted as single works even when they contained multiple titles, and that some class members received notice too late to opt out.⁹

Attorneys’ fees are still being sorted out. Class counsel originally asked for $300 million (20% of the fund) but reduced the request to $187.5 million (12.5%) after the judge pushed back on a $75 million set-aside for lawyers who were not named class counsel. The judge said those attorneys were “working for free” and would not receive a cut.¹⁰ At the fairness hearing she also questioned the fee multiplier of roughly seven times the $22 million in hours-based fees actually billed, along with a proposed $15 million cost reserve.¹¹ No ruling on fees has issued.

Practical takeaway on timing: if your claim is in, expect a wait through final approval, any appeals, and administrative processing before a check arrives.

Opting Out and Suing on Your Own

Three hundred fifty class members opted out.⁶ Among them is investigative journalist John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood. On December 22, 2025, Carreyrou and four other authors filed their own lawsuit against Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity in the Northern District of California, seeking individualized statutory damages from a jury.¹² They stated they did not want their claims “resolved for pennies on the dollar” in a class settlement.¹³ Anthropic moved to dismiss in February 2026, arguing the complaint fails to allege the plaintiffs’ books were in the specific dataset used and that the claims are barred by the three-year statute of limitations.¹⁴

The settlement has also become a template for other rightsholders. A coalition of music publishers led by Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group filed a $3 billion copyright infringement suit against Anthropic in January 2026, alleging the company illegally downloaded 20,000 musical works, using evidence uncovered during the Bartz litigation.¹⁵

Checking Your Claim Status

JND Legal Administration is the court-appointed claims administrator, and the official settlement website posts the operative dates and notices.¹⁶ If you filed a claim before the March 30, 2026 deadline, your next step is simply to wait for final approval and payment instructions. If you never received notice and believe your book was on the works list, contact class counsel at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein or Susman Godfrey; the question of late opt-outs is currently before the judge.¹⁷

1
NPR. Anthropic Settlement Authors Copyright AI
2
Authors Guild. Anthropic Settlement Update: 91 Percent of Books Claimed
3
CourtListener. Bartz v. Anthropic PBC
4
Wolters Kluwer Copyright Blog. The Bartz v. Anthropic Settlement: Understanding America’s Largest Copyright Settlement
5
Authors Guild. What Authors Need to Know About the Anthropic Settlement
6
Courthouse News Service. Authors, Publishers Near Final Approval of $1.5 Billion Anthropic Copyright Settlement
7
Susman Godfrey. Susman Godfrey Secures $1.5 Billion Settlement in Landmark AI Piracy Case
8
Publishers Weekly. Little Drama at Anthropic’s Settlement Hearing
9
Authors Alliance. Bartz v. Anthropic Settlement Update: New Date and Time for the Fairness Hearing
10
Bloomberg Law. Authors’ Lawyers Lower Fees Ask in Anthropic Pact Approval Bid
11
Authors Alliance. Bartz v. Anthropic Fairness Hearing Observations and Takeaways
12
Bloomberg Law. OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI Hit With Copyright Lawsuit From Writers
13
Authors Alliance. Bartz v. Anthropic: Updated Opt-Out and Objection Dates and a New Judge
14
ChatGPT Is Eating the World. Anthropic Moves to Dismiss John Carreyrou’s Lawsuit
15
The American Lawyer. Music Publishers Use Evidence Unearthed in Bartz to Hit Anthropic With $3B Suit
16
Anthropic Copyright Settlement. Anthropic Copyright Settlement
17
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein. Anthropic Authors Rights