The publisher behind the Harry Potter series is set to receive a significant multimillion-pound payout, stemming from a $1.5 billion (£1.12 billion) copyright settlement involving the AI company Anthropic and thousands of authors. This agreement addresses the concern over the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials to develop chatbots.
Bloomsbury Publishing, which also represents bestselling authors like Sarah J. Maas and Susanna Clarke alongside J.K. Rowling, reported that it has 14,087 titles included in the settlement, with an anticipated payout of approximately $3,000 for each title.
The London-based publishing house expects to begin receiving funds from this settlement in multiple installments, potentially as early as the latter half of this fiscal year. The proceeds will be shared with the authors affected.
After accounting for around 10% in legal fees and related costs, Bloomsbury and the group of authors involved could see around $19 million (£14 million).
As the AI industry flourishes, copyright issues have emerged as a central concern, particularly with entities like Anthropic, whose Claude chatbots are trained on a massive array of data sourced from the internet, including copyrighted novels and articles.
AI companies in the U.S. have claimed that their use of such content falls under the fair use doctrine, which permits certain uses of copyrighted materials without needing the owner's consent. Conversely, many creative professionals and artists worldwide are advocating for AI companies to obtain permission or compensate them for using their work.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín remarked on Monday that this settlement offers “meaningful relief” for the authors and publishers involved. The legal dispute was initiated when novelist Andrea Bartz and two other writers launched a lawsuit in 2024. Notably, approximately 91% of the 482,000 works covered by the lawsuit have been claimed.
Justin Nelson, the lead attorney for the authors, hailed the settlement as “the largest known copyright recovery in history.”
This marks the first significant resolution among many ongoing copyright lawsuits in the U.S. that have been filed by authors and news organizations regarding AI usage.
Following the ruling, Anthropic’s deputy general counsel, Aparna Sridhar, expressed satisfaction, stating, “We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close.”
In addition, Bloomsbury announced an AI licensing initiative last year that enables it to monetize academic works for training generative AI programs. The firm recently indicated that it is exploring additional subjects for AI training and is offering authors the option to “opt in” to the program, ensuring they will receive royalties should they permit their works to be utilized.
