Senior Judge William Alsup ruled in Bartz v. Anthropic PBC that training Claude LLMs using copyrighted books qualifies as fair use. The court's decision separated two main issues: the legality of using copyrighted material for training and how those materials were acquired. Summary judgment favored Anthropic on the fair use question, asserting permission under 17 U.S.C. 107. However, it denied summary judgment regarding Anthropic's acquisition of pirated books. This opinion may influence other high-profile copyright infringement lawsuits involving generative AI.
The Court granted summary judgment for Anthropic on the fair use question, finding that training Claude on copyrighted books was permissible under 17 U.S.C. 107.
Judge Alsup did not mince words or consider this a close call, writing the purpose and character of using works to train LLMs qualified as transformative.
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