Anthropic requested that its Ninth Circuit petition and emergency stay motion be held in abeyance after both parties executed a binding term sheet intended to memorialize a proposed class settlement. Plaintiffs Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson—journalists and book authors—alleged in August 2024 that Anthropic used hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books from unauthorized sources to train the Claude chatbot. Judge William Alsup granted summary judgment that Anthropic's training use and certain print-to-digital scanning were fair but denied summary judgment on pirated library copies, ordering a trial on damages and potential willfulness. Anthropic sought interlocutory appeal or reconsideration, citing a separate Chhabria ruling.
"It appears that under the current law, so long as you have lawfully procured a copy of a work, it is fair use to use that as training material in a neural network on the basis that the actual use is considered transformative fair use." - Randy McCarthy, Hall Estill
According to a Consent Motion filed Tuesday, August 26, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Anthropic has requested that its petition appealing a district court ruling on class certification and its Emergency Motion to stay district court proceedings pending disposition of that petition both be held in abeyance.
The order on fair use granted summary judgment for Anthropic that its use of the works at issue for training and its scanning of certain works from print-to-digital format were fair, but denied summary judgment for Anthropic that certain pirated library copies of the relevant works must be treated as training copies and ordered a trial with respect to the pirated copies to determine damages, including potentially for willfulness.
Bartz et. al., who are journalists and book authors, filed the lawsuit in August 2024 alleging that Anthropic's widespread copyright infringement involves "hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books" from unauthorized sources used to train Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot.
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