U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books to train its AI model, Claude, qualifies as fair use. This decision addresses the lawsuit filed by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, who alleged that Anthropic infringed their copyrights by using pirated versions of their books for AI training.
Judge Alsup concluded that the AI training process was “exceedingly transformative,” comparing it to a human writer learning from existing works to create new content. He emphasized that the AI’s purpose was not to replicate or replace the original works but to generate distinct, innovative outputs.
However, the court found that Anthropic infringed on copyrights by storing more than 7 million pirated books in a centralized repository, which was not directly tied to the AI training process. This action was deemed not to fall under fair use, and a trial is scheduled for December to determine potential damages, which could reach up to $150,000 per infringed work.
The ruling provides legal clarity for AI developers, affirming that using copyrighted materials for training purposes can be considered fair use if the process is transformative. However, it also underscores the importance of sourcing training data lawfully, as the unauthorized acquisition and storage of copyrighted works remain subject to infringement claims.
While this ruling is noteworthy, the plaintiffs will appeal, so Bartz v. Anthropic PBC isn’t over; it’s really just getting started.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.