Bloomsbury Publishing secures millions from Anthropic settlement over AI training on copyrighted works

Bloomsbury among publishers in line for payout from Anthropic's $1.5bn copyright settlement

The London house says 14,087 of its titles are covered by the largest copyright settlement in US history, with roughly $3,000 owed per work. Bloomsbury, the London publisher best known for the Harry Potter series, has confirmed it will collect a share of Anthropic's $1.5bn settlement with authors, the largest copyright payout in US history. The company told the stock market this week that 14,087 of its titles sit on the list of works covered by the deal, which a federal judge signed off on on Monday. The money stems from Bartz v. Anthropic, the class action a group of writers brought after the AI firm was found to have downloaded millions of pirated books to train its Claude models. The case had already produced a rare fairness hearing before Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted final approval, inheriting the matter from Judge William Alsup, who has since retired. The three named plaintiffs, novelist Andrea Bartz and the non-fiction writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson, first struck the agreement with Anthropic in September 2025. Alsup granted preliminary approval that month, and the case then passed to Martínez-Olguín for this week's final sign-off. Under the terms, each eligible work draws compensation of about $3,000, before deductions for legal fees and court costs. Bloomsbury said the amount attached to each of its titles would be divided equally between author and publisher, leaving each side with around $1,500 per book. The company expects the cash to arrive in instalments beginning in the second half of its financial year, according to its regulatory filing. It did not put a total figure on its own share, and the sums remain subject to the court's administration process. The settlement resolves one of the first real reckonings over how generative AI systems are built. Anthropic had bought and scanned physical books legally, but it also pulled roughly seven million copies from pirate repositories, Library Genesis in 2021 and the Pirate Library Mirror in 2022, a practice the court treated separately from the question of AI training itself. After duplicates and ineligible works were stripped out, about 500,000 distinct titles qualified for the class, each needing a US copyright registration to count. That distinction did most of the work. In June 2025, Alsup ruled that training models on copyrighted text could count as fair use, while acquiring pirated copies could not. Anthropic chose to settle rather than appeal, which leaves the fair-use finding as a single district-court opinion rather than binding precedent. Anthropic did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to pay. The arithmetic still favoured a settlement, since statutory damages can reach $150,000 per infringed work, an exposure that, spread across a class this size, dwarfed the $1.5bn on the table and made a jury trial the larger gamble. Authors and publishers had until the end of March to lodge claims against the approved list of works. For publishers, the payout lands as they press near-identical claims elsewhere. Five houses are suing Meta over Llama, and a separate group has taken Google to court over Gemini, each arguing their catalogues were ingested without permission or payment. Those cases remain free to reach conclusions of their own, since the Anthropic ruling binds no one. Bloomsbury's inclusion shows how far the settlement reaches beyond individual writers. The list of covered works runs to hundreds of thousands of titles, and the flat per-book formula means a large back catalogue converts into a meaningful cheque. The company has had a strong run regardless, buoyed by fantasy and romance sales and by academic titles picked up through acquisitions. The Anthropic money is a windfall rather than a rescue, and one it will share, title by title, with the authors whose work it published. When the payments clear, they will be among the first tangible transfers of money from an AI company to the writers and publishers whose books trained it. Whether the arrangement becomes a template or stays a one-off now rests with courtrooms that have yet to rule.

Harry Potter publisher to receive millions in Anthropic copyright settlement

Bloomsbury has 14,087 titles listed within settlement between AI startup and authors over use of protected work The publisher of Harry Potter has received a multimillion-pound payout as a beneficiary of a $1.5bn copyright settlement between AI startup Anthropic and thousands of authors over the use of their protected work to power chatbots. Bloomsbury, which is home to bestselling novelists Sarah J Maas and Susanna Clarke as well as JK Rowling, said it had 14,087 titles listed within the settlement, with a proposed compensation of about $3,000 each. The London-based company expects to receive the cash from the settlement in instalments, potentially starting in the second half of this fiscal year, with the proceeds to be split with authors. After a deduction of about 10% for attorney fees and other expenses, Bloomsbury and the group of affected authors can expect to each receive about $19m (£14m). Copyright has become a major battleground in the AI boom because tools like Anthropic's suite of Claude chatbots are trained on vast amounts of data taken from the open web, including copyright-protected work such as novels and news articles. US-based AI companies have argued that using such work is allowed under the legal doctrine of fair use, which allows use of copyrighted work without the owner's permission in certain circumstances. However, creative professionals and artists around the world have been demanding that AI companies seek permission first - or at least pay them for using their work. US district judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said on Monday that the settlement provided "meaningful relief" to affected authors and publishers. The case began when bestselling novelist Andrea Bartz and two other authors filed the lawsuit in 2024. About 91% of the 482,000 works covered in the suit have been claimed. The authors' lead lawyer, Justin Nelson, described it as "the largest known copyright recovery in history". It is the first major settlement out of dozens of AI copyright lawsuits being filed in the US on behalf of authors and news outlets, which are still going through the courts. Anthropic's deputy general counsel, Aparna Sridhar, said in a written statement after the ruling: "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." Bloomsbury announced an AI licensing deal last year, which allows it to sell academic works to train up generative AI programmes. The firm said recently that more subject areas were now being considered for AI training. Authors have been given the opportunity to "opt in" to the scheme and will be paid royalties if they decide to let their work be used.

Why is Bloomsbury Publishing stock climbing today? By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Bloomsbury Publishing stock rose 1.4% to trade at 651p as a major legal development gave investors a concrete reason to buy the London-listed publisher, with a U.S. federal court granting final approval today to the $1.5 billion class action settlement in the case of Bartz et al vs. Anthropic, which centred on the AI company's unauthorized use of copyrighted books to train its large language models. The US District Court formally approved the $1.5 billion settlement, with Bloomsbury confirming it is among the beneficiaries and will receive funds spread over several payments estimated to start in the second half of the financial year, covering 14,087 of its titles at approximately $3,000 per work, divided equally between the author and the publisher. The Anthropic settlement news arrived against a backdrop of already-positive company momentum. Bloomsbury had recently backed its full-year guidance, citing benefits from ongoing AI licensing revenue and growth in its Academic & Professional division, with the company remaining confident in delivering full-year adjusted profit in line with consensus expectations of £49.9 million on revenue of £354.2 million. Bloomsbury also highlighted a strong consumer publishing slate for financial year 2027, including the anticipated boost from the Christmas launch of HBO's new Harry Potter TV series, expected to introduce the novels to a new generation of readers. From a broader market perspective, the settlement news proved powerful enough to lift the stock against a challenging global backdrop, with U.S. indices under pressure -- the S&P 500 off 0.4% and the Nasdaq sliding 0.9%. The consensus analyst rating on Bloomsbury remains "Strong Buy," with all five covering analysts recommending the stock and none advising a sale. The publisher's growing relevance in the AI content licensing space -- both through active licensing deals and now through litigation-based settlements -- continues to attract investor attention. Taken together, the court-approved Anthropic settlement provided a clear, quantifiable cash catalyst that the market had been awaiting, while the company's reaffirmed profit guidance and strong content pipeline reinforced confidence in the underlying business. Bloomsbury struck an AI partnership with Google in September of last year and has benefited from licensing revenue in the early months of its new fiscal year, underscoring how AI monetisation of its content catalogue has become a meaningful and recurring driver of its financial performance. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Bloomsbury Publishing among recipients of Anthropic AI settlement By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Bloomsbury Publishing (LON:BLPU) said Tuesday it will receive compensation from a $1.5 billion settlement resolving claims that Anthropic used copyrighted books without authorization to train its artificial intelligence models. The British publisher said a U.S. court identified 14,087 of its titles covered by the settlement. The proposed compensation is approximately $3,000 per title, divided equally between authors and publishers. A federal judge approved the class-action lawsuit on Monday. Authors brought the case alleging Anthropic used their books without permission to train its Claude AI chatbot. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Bloomsbury Publishing set for USD20 million from Anthropic settlement

(Alliance News) - Bloomsbury Publishing PLC on Wednesday said it stands to benefit financially from the settlement of a US class action lawsuit against artificial intelligence developer Anthropic PBC. A US district court has formally approved a USD1.5 billion settlement in a class action lawsuit against Anthropic, the creator of the Claude family of AI models. The lawsuit accused Anthropic of training its AI models on content for which it had not paid. Bloomsbury said it is among the beneficiaries and will receive several payments, with the first expected in the second half of its financial year, meaning September to February. The London-based fiction and non-fiction book publisher said 14,087 of its titles had been listed in the settlement by the court. The proposed settlement is about USD3,000 for each work, before expenses, split equally between the author and the publisher. This suggests USD42.3 million in total and a USD21.1 million share to Bloomsbury, both before expenses. The company noted it had net cash of GBP29.2 million as of its February 28 financial year-end. Anthropic at the start of June filed with the US Securities & Exchange Commission for a possible initial public offering. Just prior to the filing, Anthropic raised USD65 billion in a funding round that valued the company at USD965 billion. Bloomsbury shares rose 1.3% to 650.20 pence each on Wednesday morning in London. By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor

Bloomsbury to receive funds from $1.5 bln Anthropic copyright settlement By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Bloomsbury said on Wednesday it will receive payments from the $1.5 billion settlement in the class action case Bartz et al vs. Anthropic, which addressed the use of content to train AI models without proper authorization. The publisher said 14,087 of its titles are included in the settlement, with compensation estimated at approximately $3,000 per work. Bloomsbury expects to receive the settlement funds through multiple payments beginning in the second half of its financial year, the company said. The class-action copyright lawsuit was brought by Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson against Anthropic over the use of books to train its Claude large language models. The court determined that training AI on legally acquired books constitutes fair use, but ruled that using pirated shadow libraries does not qualify for such protection. The ruling led to the proposed $1.5 billion settlement from Anthropic. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.