Last week. Nevertheless, judge William Alsup of the Federal Court of San Francisco made a long -awaited decision in the case between three authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson and Anthropic, Californian unicorn behind the IA Claude. Similarly, This order. Therefore, which is based on fair use, marks a turning point in the debates on the use of protected works to cause AI models.
Between 2021 and 2023, Anthropic downloaded more than 7 million pirated pounds from sites like Books3, Libgen or Pilimi. Consequently, After having become aware of the legal risks linked to hacked copies. Furthermore, the company bought from spring 2024 legally hundreds of thousands of these books, scanned them after having tore their binding, deleted the headers, and the foots, then destroyed them. Moreover, She kept these files in her internal library even after having decided anthropic found guilty having kept that some would not be used for training her Claude models. would no longer be in the future
Bartz’s novels, Graeber’s tests and Johnson’s stories are part of both hacked and legally bought books, often used. They brought this collective trial against Anthropic which used their works without their consent or financial counterpart for copyright violation.
Without deciding all the questions raised by this case, judge Alsup nevertheless clarified two essential points. On the one hand. he estimated that the use by anthropic of legally acquired books, digitized and integrated into its training base, was a fair use (“fair use”) within the meaning of American law. The judge compared this process to that of an author. researcher who relies on readings to produce an original work, thus stressing the transformational dimension of use. For him. the trial of the authors “It is no different from what it would be if anthropic found guilty having kept they complained that the training of schoolchildren to write would lead to an explosion of competing works.”
On the other hand, he clearly distinguished this lawful treatment due to preserving digitized versions. According to him, creating an internal library from stolen books cannot be excused by the right to innovation or research. This part of the dispute is referred to a trial scheduled for December. where Anthropic’s responsibility could be engaged for involvement characterized to copyright.
The company may then have to face a collective action of another magnitude if the judge approves the integration. of thousands of authors in the trial. If it is certified, Anthropic could have to pay each of them up to $ 150,000 per work …
This historical decision. if it is not denied during a possible call, could make school and influence other disputes in progress in the AI sector.
anthropic found guilty having kept