AI Class Action

Anthropic has asked a California federal judge to rule that its use of copyrighted materials to train Claude qualifies as transformative fair use, comparing the AI's training process to how humans learn by reading and absorbing themes. The filing stands apart from the $1.5 billion class-action settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic, where the claims deadline passed on March 30, 2026, and a fairness hearing is scheduled for May 14, 2026, in San Francisco federal court.

Five major publishing houses—Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan, and McGraw Hill—filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta Platforms and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on May 5, 2026, in Manhattan federal court. The publishers allege Meta systematically downloaded millions of copyrighted books and journal articles from pirate repositories including LibGen and Anna's Archive to train its Llama generative AI model without authorization or payment. The complaint further charges that Meta stripped copyright-management information from the works to obscure their sources. Author Scott Turow joined as a named plaintiff. The defendants face unspecified monetary damages claims and potential class certification covering broader copyright holders.