Anthropic Hit With New $75 Million Copyright Suit Over Claude Training Data

Anthropic is facing a new lawsuit seeking $75 million in damages, with authors alleging the AI developer pirated copyrighted books from shadow libraries to train Claude. According to BeInCrypto, the complaint says Anthropic did not seek licenses or offer payment, and argues that downloading pirated copies is a separate infringement even if training on legally acquired books can qualify as fair use. The filing adds to legal pressure on Anthropic, which also faces a separate class action filed in June over Claude Max subscription plans. BeInCrypto says Anthropic previously settled a landmark class action for roughly $1.5 billion, paying about $3,000 each to authors for an estimated 500,000 pirated books.