Lawsuits · Anthropic
A federal court found that Anthropic downloaded three pirate book collections in 2021 and 2022. The $1.5 billion Bartz settlement covers the 482,460 works on its Works List; the first payments are expected on or before November 15, 2026, subject to the administrator’s conditions. Claims over books not on that list were not released.
Each statement is labeled by its source. Findings and orders come from the court; company filings and papers are the company’s own words; allegations are claims not yet proved.
Anthropic downloaded Books3 (early 2021), at least five million books from LibGen (June 2021) and at least two million from the Pirate Library Mirror (July 2022).
Bartz v. Anthropic, N.D. Cal., order of June 23, 2025Final approval on July 20, 2026: about $3,000 per work before fees and costs and any division among rights holders, for 482,460 works on the final Works List (the settlement had estimated about 500,000). First payments are expected on or before November 15, 2026 (ECF No. 692). Claims had been filed for 440,490 of them (91.3%) by April 16, 2026.
Bartz, Dkt. 680350 owners opted out on time, covering 1,802 works. Opting out kept their right to sue on those works.
Bartz, Dkt. 619-3 (Ex. J); Dkt. 680Anthropic moved to dismiss the opt-out authors’ suits, arguing that the three-year limitations period bars claims over its 2021 and 2022 downloads. Hearing set for December 17, 2026.
Cambronne v. Anthropic, N.D. Cal., Dkt. 228Two appeals are pending in the Ninth Circuit, Nos. 26-5391 and 26-5455. The parties agree the settlement’s Effective Date has occurred unless a late-filed appeal is allowed to go forward, and first payments are expected by November 15, 2026 (ECF No. 692).
Bartz, Dkts. 682–685Our LibGen catalog snapshot of June 5, 2021 falls in the month the court found Anthropic downloaded LibGen, so a report can show what the library listed then.
Court date: Bartz order of June 23, 2025; snapshot: our sourcesLibGen and PiLiMi books with an ISBN or ASIN, registered with the Copyright Office within five years of publication and either before Anthropic’s download or within three months of publication, and on the Works List. The release covers past downloading and copying of those works through August 25, 2025; it does not cover outputs or future conduct.
Books that missed those conditions or were left off the Works List, books downloaded only as Books3 files, and the 1,802 works whose owners opted out. Whether any claim over them is still timely is a question for a lawyer. More on who was left out
How many registered works in our catalogs fall outside the settlement, by collection.
Registrations matched to dated catalog records in our dataset: our estimate, not a court finding, and each match is a candidate to confirm against the Copyright Office record. Law firms can get these as defendant lists.
Hypothetical maximum scenario (statutory ceiling), list by list. Each list counts works (copies, formats, editions and translations of one book count once) with a registration dated before that copying could have begun (17 U.S.C. § 412). These are legal maximums, not estimates: each figure is what the statute would allow if every work were awarded the $150,000 maximum for willful infringement (§ 504(c)(2)), plus costs and attorney’s fees if a court awards them (§ 505). The statute allows one award per work for all of one infringer’s infringements in the case, or one shared award where infringers are jointly and severally liable, and all parts of a compilation or derivative work count as one work (§ 504(c)(1)). So a company’s lists overlap and must not be added together: a book on two of its lists is still one award, and the figures for different companies are not a combined total.
Counted once across all of Anthropic’s lists: 9,584 works, up to $1.4 billion. Of the 9,700 works on its lists (1,635 on more than one), these have a registration dated before the earliest date Anthropic’s copying of them could have begun. This, not the sum of the lines above, is the per-company figure.
The lists overlap, so the figures are not added together. None of these figures is a prediction or a valuation: ordinary awards run from $750 to $30,000 per work, the maximum requires a finding of willfulness, a work counts once however many copies were made, matches are candidates to confirm, and whether any work qualifies is for a court. Our screen identifies candidate works that may fall outside the settlement; verify each work’s status with the official lookup and the case documents. Works released in it cannot be claimed again against Anthropic.
The free check lists the titles under your name and counts them in each dated snapshot, including June 2021. A report lists each edition with its registration, claimant and the timing against each download.
Check a name freeSee a sample reportLast reviewed October 3, 2026. Developments are logged on our news page.