A federal judge in California recently ruled that three authors can file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all American authors who have had their works downloaded from a pirated library, accusing AI company Anthropic of copyright infringement. The lawsuit was filed by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson in August last year. They allege that Anthropic built a business worth billions of dollars by stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books.
Court documents stated that Anthropic downloaded up to 7 million books from a pirated library without authorization, an act described as similar to the early music-sharing website Napster. The ruling has drawn widespread attention because it not only involves the protection of copyright but also relates to the development and ethics of artificial intelligence technology.
Last month, a federal judge had supported Anthropic's argument, stating that books legally purchased by the company for training AI models fell under fair use. However, the judge also emphasized that Anthropic would still face individual trials for using allegedly pirated books. This suggests that even if part of the usage is legal, it cannot conceal its potential infringement.
Additionally, Reddit recently also filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, claiming that its chatbot accessed Reddit over 100,000 times without authorization. Anthropic had stated that it would prevent its bot from accessing the platform.
This lawsuit reflects the increasingly complex relationship between media, platforms, companies, and creative individuals. More and more creators are taking legal action, accusing AI companies of copyright infringement. For example, Universal Music also sued Anthropic in 2023, claiming that its "systematically and extensively infringes on its copyrighted lyrics." At the same time, some creators choose to collaborate with AI companies, actively providing training data in hopes of receiving a share of the revenue.
This lawsuit has sparked a wide-ranging discussion about artificial intelligence technology and its impact on the creative industry. How it will develop in the future is something we should continue to pay attention to.
Key Points:
📚 Three authors have filed a class-action lawsuit, accusing Anthropic of stealing millions of books.
⚖️ The judge ruled that Anthropic will face an individual trial for allegedly using pirated books.
🤖 Media and creators are increasingly concerned about copyright infringement by AI companies, and the number of related lawsuits continues to rise.