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AI copyright news, graded by source

Court rulings, company filings and allegations in the copyright cases against AI companies and pirate libraries, over books, articles, music, images, video and code. Checked for new filings every three hours; items are posted after review, so some appear later. Get these by e-mail · Court filings, free to read

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AllegationJune 17, 2026Shakespeare v. Anthropic PBC · N.D. Cal. 3:26-cv-05931

A large group of authors sues Anthropic, Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann, alleging BitTorrent downloads also uploaded their books to others

Thomas Shakespeare, Laura Esquivel, Nolan Bushnell and a large group of other authors filed a 114-page complaint against Anthropic and two of its founders individually. It alleges the defendants torrented the plaintiffs' books from shadow libraries, kept them in a permanent central library, and, because BitTorrent uploads while it downloads, distributed copies to other users in violation of the distribution right. The complaint lists registrations and statutory damages sought author by author; some plaintiffs say they opted out of the Bartz settlement and others limit their claims to the torrenting theory pending leave to opt out. These are allegations; Anthropic has moved to dismiss, with a hearing set for December 17, 2026.

Complaint (Dkt. 1), on DocumentCloud ↗

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What the labels mean

Every item says what kind of source it rests on. A court ruling or order is the court's own statement. A company filing is what a defendant says about itself. A government filing is a statement by a government agency that is not a party to the case, such as a statement of interest; it is the government's position, not a ruling. An allegation is what a complaint or motion claims and has not been decided. Reported means press reporting we have not confirmed from the primary document. Summaries are our own; follow the links for the source.

This page is general information, not legal advice. An allegation is not a finding. Whether any of this matters for a particular work or claim is a question for a lawyer.