Were your books pirated and used to train AI models without your consent?
Your day in court has arrived. Actually, that day has come and gone. You won. Unofficially.
In 2024, the authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued the AI company Anthropic for copyright infringement, alleging that Anthropic illegally used pirated versions of their books to train the company’s AI model, Claude.
In Sept. 2025, Anthropic agreed to settle the case for $1.5 billion. That’s the largest copyright claim settlement in U.S. history. It’s a class action suit, so the money doesn’t all go to Bartz, Graeber, and Johnson. It’ll be split between the authors of the 483,000 books in the two pirated databases that Anthropic confessed to using. That’s roughly $3,000 per title.
If your book came out prior to 2023 and has an ISBN number, you’re probably entitled to a piece of that settlement. Don’t know if your book is in the dataset? That’s okay. There’s a website that’ll look up the title for you.
Here’s how to get what’s coming to you.
Go to www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com. You may have to approach indirectly, like via Google. (My browser didn’t like the direct address.) It should look like this:
Click on “Works List Lookup” to see if your title is in the class that won the action. If it is, click on “File a Claim” and follow the instructions.
Note: Claims will be processed per title, so if you have more than one title in the class you will need to file an individual claim for each title. Your claim application will be processed by the Claims Administrator, a professional firm contracted by the federal court to oversee the administration of payouts in cases like this.
Also note: In most cases the $3,000 per title will be split 50-50 between the author and the publisher. As a friend said to me, People are out there buying boats. Please. Don’t buy a boat based on the assumption that you’ll be getting $3k for your 10 titles. Nobody knows when the money will arrive. And you probably shouldn’t be buying a boat anyway. Find a friend with one.
Deadline to file a claim: March 23, 2026
That’s a firm deadline, and there may be thousands of last-minute claimants jamming the website on March 22. Do yourself a favor and file now.
I just signed off from an Authors Guild webinar on the case and the payout. The lead attorneys on the case spoke for about an hour. Their main message was this: For god’s sake file a claim. This is money sitting on the table. It’s yours.
A few questions that came up:
Is it a firm $3k per title?
No. It could be more. $3k is an estimate based on the authors of all 480,000 books filing a claim. If authors only file claims for 100,000 titles, the per-title payout rises to $15,000. Minus some fees and expenses.
Does unclaimed money revert to Anthropic?
No. Anthropic is paying out $1.5 billion regardless of how many authors file claims.
Does my publisher get a piece of the payout?
In most cases, yes. If Random House published your claimed title, you and Random House will split the payout 50-50. If your book was self-published, you get 100% of the payout.
My book was pirated in Books3, the database searchable via The Atlantic. Does that mean I’m entitled to a payout?
No. The two pirated databases used by Anthropic differed slightly from Books3, so the overlap isn’t perfect. Check the Settlement website list to be sure.
Am I giving any rights to Anthropic by filing a claim?
No. Anthropic has agreed to destroy any copies of the two pirated databases in its possession, and is getting no license whatsoever to do anything with your work.
Why did Anthropic agree to settle the case?
That’s proprietary boardroom information, but the best theory is that they wanted to end the legal headache and the risk that a court loss and a larger settlement could actually bankrupt the company. Anthropic has cultivated a reputation as the ethical AI company, and that likely played a part as well.
Why did the authors settle if they were winning?
They were doing well, but winning was by no means a sure thing. One of the lawyers for the authors said yesterday: “This was not a slam-dunk case. We firmly believe in our case. But anytime you’re in litigation about new technology, you’re dealing with significant risks.” There was also a strong chance that a victory could be overturned on appeal. And the current U.S. Supreme Court is not exactly unfriendly to corporate interests. “Against that backdrop, this is an incredible result,” the lawyer said. “It’s a very good result.”
This is only one lawsuit. There are dozens of other copyright infringement lawsuits ongoing in courts around the nation right now. Edward Lee, law professor and publisher of ChatGPTiseatingtheworld, recently released this map charting all the cases worldwide as of Oct. 2025:
Filing a claim in the Anthropic case does not in any way preclude you from participating in other class action settlements, should they arise. Celebrate the wins: File a claim this weekend!
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MEET THE HUMANIST
Bruce Barcott, founding editor of The AI Humanist, is a writer known for his award-winning work on environmental issues and drug policy for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Outside, Rolling Stone, and other publications.
A former Guggenheim Fellow in nonfiction, his books include The Measure of a Mountain, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, and Weed the People.
Bruce currently serves as Editorial Lead for the Transparency Coalition, a nonprofit group that advocates for safe and sensible AI policy. Opinions expressed in The AI Humanist are those of the author alone and do not reflect the position of the Transparency Coalition.
Portrait created with the use of Sora, OpenAI’s imaging tool.