Industry & Advocacy News

Authors Guild Welcomes Approval of Anthropic Settlement

Artificial Intelligence

September 25, 2025

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The Authors Guild welcomes the preliminary approval of the settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic. We want to congratulate the named plaintiffs—Andrea Bartz, Kirk Johnson, and Charles Graeber—for leading the fight on behalf of all authors, and the attorneys from Sussman Godfrey and Lieff Cabraser, who worked tirelessly in moving this historic settlement across the finish line. 

Author groups, including the Authors Guild, Romance Writers of America, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc., and the Textbook & Academic Authors Association, advised on key issues related to the settlement. Earlier this week, we filed a joint declaration with the court, elaborating our role as experts on publishing contracts that guided class counsel towards a fair, equitable, and adequate plan of distribution of settlement funds. Our efforts included advising on the format of the claims form and the default splits—50-50 for trade book and university presses, to make disbursement speedy and straightforward.

The settlement marks a milestone in authors’ fights against AI companies’ theft of their works. It sends a clear signal to AI companies that infringement of authors’ rights comes at a steep price and will undoubtedly push AI companies towards acquiring the books they want legally, through licensing. The case is also significant in that it serves as an example of how class actions can be a successful vehicle for seeking justice for mass copyright infringement. 

Although we respectfully disagree with Judge Alsup’s holding on the fair use question—that AI training is fundamentally transformative—and believe that market harm was not correctly factored into the analysis, we nonetheless see the outcome of this case as a positive step towards protecting authors. We are looking to other ongoing cases, such as our class action suit in the Southern District of New York against OpenAI, to prove that the unlicensed use of books by AI companies to build models that produce competing works is not fair use.

In the coming weeks, we will continue working with class counsel and our peer organizations to make sure that all authors whose works are part of the settlement claims are reached and understand their rights, and we will be assisting authors in preparing and submitting their claim forms.

For more information and frequently asked questions, see What Authors Need to Know About the $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement.