Court grants final approval to the USD 1.5 billion Bartz v. Anthropic copyright settlement
Good for: Leaders · Operators · Insurance
On 20 July 2026, the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval to a USD 1.5 billion class settlement of copyright claims over books brought against AI developer Anthropic (Bartz v. Anthropic PBC), and dismissed the action with prejudice. The order, signed by Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, approves a settlement resolving claims over books that Anthropic downloaded from the LibGen and PiLiMi libraries. A settlement is not a finding of liability.
What happened
The order approves a non-reversionary fund of USD 1.5 billion plus interest for a class of the legal or beneficial owners of the exclusive right to reproduce books in the LibGen and PiLiMi library versions that Anthropic downloaded. Only works on the settlement’s Works List, which the order puts at 482,460, are in the class. The court estimates payments of about USD 3,000 per work, “less costs and fees.” It awarded class counsel about USD 101.6 million in fees, roughly 6.8 percent of the fund and well below the 12.5 percent requested, holding back 10 percent pending an accounting after distribution.
The release covers past conduct relating to the listed works. According to the order, it does not release claims about AI outputs or about future conduct. Anthropic must destroy the original files it downloaded from the two libraries, subject to legal preservation duties, and the order records Anthropic’s representation that neither dataset was in the training corpus of its commercially released models.
Why it matters
For risk and insurance readers, the case puts a court-approved settlement figure on one kind of AI copyright exposure: claims over how an AI developer acquired source material, separate from what a model later produces. The settlement resolves claims without any finding that Anthropic is liable, and the release leaves output-based claims open. For how existing lines of cover respond to AI-related claims, see What Is AI Insurance?. The approval is on the AI Risk Timeline.
What is not yet clear
Whether any part of the payment was insured has not been disclosed. According to the Authors Guild, no date for the start of payouts had been announced when final approval was granted.
Frequently asked questions
What did the court approve in Bartz v. Anthropic?
On 20 July 2026 the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval to a non-reversionary USD 1.5 billion class settlement of copyright claims over books that Anthropic downloaded from the LibGen and PiLiMi libraries, and dismissed the action with prejudice. The order estimates about USD 3,000 per work, less costs and fees. A settlement is not a finding of liability.