Hundreds Sue Meta for Copyright Infringement, Rejecting Class Action Payouts; Publishers Weekly, October 21, 2026

 Ed Nawotka , Publishers Weekly; Hundreds Sue Meta for Copyright Infringement, Rejecting Class Action Payouts

"Nearly 300 authors filed copyright infringement claims against Meta Platforms on October 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging the company trained its AI models on pirated copies of their books and, more recently, on physical books it bought and scanned without a license.

Rather than join a class action suit, in which a few named plaintiffs sue on behalf of everyone, each author is pursuing an individual claim...

Plaintiffs range in prominence: Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries; Reyna Grande, a memoirist; Mark Spragg, a novelist; Rachel Nuwer, a journalist; Silvia Foti, author of The Nazi’s Granddaughter; and Minxin Pei, a scholar on China.

All of the authors signed up through ClaimsHero, a platform that partnered with Freedman Normand Friedland and Stris & Maher last fall to recruit authors to opt out of the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement and sue on their own. The new suits arrive as the first cases from that effort approach trial.

Suits brought by Chicken Soup for the Soul, by academic publisher Cognella and by Cambronne, the company of journalist John Carreyrou, are among the related cases against Meta scheduled for jury trials beginning May 3, 2027."

International Writers Groups Back AI Standards Charter; Publishers Weekly, October 15, 2026

 Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly; International Writers Groups Back AI Standards Charter

"The U.K.’s Society of Authors (SoA) is leading an effort of international writers’ organizations and other creative industry bodies to launch a global charter setting out commitments to the responsible and ethical use of generative AI services.

The SoA has teamed with the Creators’ Rights Alliance in the U.K., the Authors Guild in the U.S., the Australian Society of Authors, the Writers’ Union of Canada and the New Zealand Society of Authors to create a Charter of Ethical AI Use in the Creative Industries.

The charter specifically addresses generative AI and how it should be deployed to help protect and support human creators. Its creation, the SoA said, comes as governments across the globe continue to drag their feet in in [sic] committing to AI regulation and oversight."

Tufts professor’s book among illegally pirated works in Anthropic copyright settlement; The Tufts Daily, October 8, 2026

 Girumkal Allehone and Dariush Raissi, The Tufts Daily; Tufts professor’s book among illegally pirated works in Anthropic copyright settlement

"The lawsuit, Bartz v. Anthropic, resulted in a ruling that $1.5 billion would be paid to authors and publishers across the country, including Associate Professor Craig Cipolla in the Department of Anthropology at Tufts University, among other academics, primarily in social science and humanities departments.

The lawsuit ruled that Anthropic’s use of legally acquired books was protected by fair use, but that Anthropic’s creation of a “central library” of some of these pirated works was not protected under copyright law. 

The settlement covers materials that were accessed through copyright infringement to train models. In Cipolla’s case, he was notified that Anthropic’s dataset used his 2013 book, “Becoming Brothertown”.

“I was disappointed ... just because [of] the amount of hours that particular book — which is my first book — represents to me,” he said. “My own human hours.”

“In one fell swoop, essentially, a company took [the book] and uploaded it to train their AI,” Cipolla added. “It feels like they take it away and use it however they want, forever. They can’t take it out.”

Cipolla refrained from naming specific professors but explained his impression was that the impact of this infringement was widespread.

“They stole a lot — many, many, many books ... I would say it’s probably more than just tens of people [at Tufts]. I think it’s probably bigger than that, but I could be wrong.”

Cipolla explained that using books in AI development has implications beyond copyright law. He felt the case shows how AI use can reduce the need for critical thinking in producing research and writing, especially among students.

Similarly, Josephine Wolff, director of the Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs and associate dean for research at The Fletcher School, spoke about the main concerns that arise in academia regarding copyright infringement.

“Writing is, for almost every field, an important component of what we do, and that matters from a personal perspective: This is my writing, these are my thoughts and I want them to be attributed to me properly.”

Anthropic settled the case instead of going to trial, meaning it never reached a verdict that would set a legal precedent for other AI companies.

“Because we don’t get a legal ruling here, there remains some ambiguity about if I want to build a new LLM and compete with all of the existing ones, am I able to do this?” Wolff said.

Additionally, Wolff said preventing copyrighted research from being accessed for training is not straightforward for both future professors and current academics looking to publish.

“I guess you could think about which publisher you’re publishing with. ... You could try to find a publisher that doesn’t make any deals with any online or e-book distributors, but it would be pretty extreme,” said Wolff.

The difficulty in addressing and preventing copyright issues is partly rooted in the intense competition within the international AI race, which undermines the importance of copyright infringement."

Nearly 12,000 School Book Bans Nationwide in 2025-2026—Biggest Number in a Single Year; PEN America, October 5, 2026

PEN America; Nearly 12,000 School Book Bans Nationwide in 2025-2026—Biggest Number in a Single Year

"PEN America today reported nearly 12,000 book bans in public schools nationwide during the 2025-2026 school year—the largest number in a single year. New state censorship laws accounted for much of the increase, coupled with the use of artificial intelligence to remove books en masse including popular manga series and other graphic novels.

In a report released to coincide with Banned Books Week, the latest accounting of book bans increased to 34,000 instances since PEN America began documenting the spreading book censorship crisis in schools in 2021. 

Texas recorded the largest number of book bans during the 2025-2026 school year (over 8,100), surpassing Florida (over 3,200), due to the impact of a censorial Texas law, SB13, which bans broad categories of books in schools. Florida had been No. 1 for three consecutive years.

The writers and free expression organization also reported a record number of unique titles banned in the last school year—more than 7,000—which impacted more than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators, also a record number. In addition, researchers identified 114 school districts that had banned books over the year, the highest number ever for a single year according to PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans.

Patricia McCormick’s 2006 award-winning young adult novel Sold, which tells the fictional story of a teenager from Nepal who is sold into sexual slavery, was No. 1 among the most frequently banned books during the school year. The most banned author for the second year in a row was Stephen King."

Publishers Hit the AI Jackpot; Vulture, October 1, 2026

 Emma Alpern, Vulture; Publishers Hit the AI Jackpot

"When Anthropic said it would pay $1.5 billion to resolve the class-action lawsuit Bartz v. Anthropic, it was agreeing to the largest U.S. copyright settlement of all time. Each copyrighted title will be allotted $3,000, mostly split 50-50 between authors and publishers, with the first payment coming as soon as November. For publishing houses with thousands of titles, the not-insubstantial infusion of tech money is “a shot in the arm,” as one publishing professional puts it. “I don’t think anyone’s satisfied,” says a big-five editor, “but it was more money than I expected. It’s a lot of money.”

It was a different story for writers, many of whom, earlier this September, logged on to Anthropic’s online portal to check on their claims and were shocked to discover their publishers had filed for 100 percent of the cash. Others realized with dismay that their publishers had failed to register their books for copyright at all, making them ineligible, and that some out-of-print books were shown as being subject to the publisher-author split even though their ownership had long ago reverted to the person who wrote them. The mood was grim. “I knew the Anthropic settlement would get messy, but I’m in disbelief over the shakedowns happening with publishers, former agents, and others trying to get a bigger percentage (or any at all),” children’s writer Elizabeth Eulberg wrote on Threads. I asked author April Henry if she’s found it hard to reach her publishers, one of whom mistakenly filed for 100 percent. “I didn’t try. Who would I get in touch with?” she says. “They never really communicated with us.”

 HASSAN ALI KANU, Politico; News publishers accuse Trump admin of bias toward AI companies in copyright suit

The Justice Department earlier this month filed a statement in court supporting OpenAI’s defense in the publishers' copyright lawsuit.

"Lawyers for The New York Times and other major publishers on Monday asked a federal court to disregard the Justice Department’s efforts to get involved in their lawsuit against OpenAI, saying the Trump administration may simply be biased in the company’s favor.

The publishers are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement. The Justice Department earlier this month filed a statement supporting OpenAI’s defense in the case, arguing that copying others’ content without permission in order to train large language models is protected under the “fair use” doctrine.

The newspapers on Monday responded that DOJ had discounted the Copyright Office’s contrary conclusion on fair use and AI, and noting that the government is seeking to weigh in at an especially early stage of the case.

“That the DOJ fails to acknowledge any possible contrary views, and dismisses the Copyright Office’s comprehensive study in a footnote, suggests that the DOJ may have been influenced by extraneous considerations — up to and including the Administration’s political and financial interests,” lawyers for the publishers wrote. “Although one could argue that political factors will always influence Government litigation positions to some extent, the nature, extent, and transparency of the AI industry’s efforts to influence this Administration should not be lightly dismissed.”...

The plaintiffs include The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, as well as a group of authors that includes Sylvia Day, John Grisham and George R. R. Martin."

Why the DOJ’s OpenAI copyright stance is the real threat to national security; ZDNET, September 15, 2026

 David Gewirtz, ZDNET; Why the DOJ’s OpenAI copyright stance is the real threat to national security

The DOJ argues that AI training is transformative fair use, but publishers say unlicensed scraping threatens their survival. This copyright fight could shape the future of online knowledge.

"Ever since generative AI arrived in early 2023, we’ve seen that its almost unlimited base of knowledge is due to how the big AI companies trained their models. To a large degree, AI models like those from OpenAI and Anthropic have been trained on anything they could ingest, including nearly all the copyrighted material on the web.

The AI companies are even reported to be buying up physical books by the millions, cutting them apart, scanning them in, and then disposing of the remains. For example, based on a search of the Anthropic settlement database, I know the company scanned my book, The Flexible Enterprise, and included it in the Claude corpus. I was never asked for permission. I don’t even get a free Claude account.

Due to the bulk ingestion of intellectual property, many companies filed suit against the AI companies. One such company is Ziff Davis, the owner of ZDNET. Disclosure: Ziff is also the company that pays me each week for my writing here.

Two weeks ago, on Sept. 1, 2026, the US Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, where the case is being litigated. What makes this statement particularly interesting is that the DOJ is not one of the parties in the case. The government is putting its thumb on the scale, weighing in on a lawsuit between private parties.

On Monday, Fortune published a commentary by Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis, regarding the Justice Department’s unusual intervention in the case. In this article, I’ll briefly summarize the DOJ’s statement, then discuss Shah’s premise, and then pick up and expand upon it with some of my own thoughts."

AI Has Plunged the Book Publishing Industry Into Utter Chaos; Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2026

 Anna Silman, Wall Street Journal; AI Has Plunged the Book Publishing Industry Into Utter Chaos

The spectacular implosions of big deals over suspected AI use are forcing a reckoning over creativity, trust and the future of the industry

"The spectacular implosions of big book deals over suspected AI use—and fears about who might be next—are forcing a reckoning over the nature of authorship, the relationship between writers and publishers and the industry’s long-term survival. But nobody can seem to agree who exactly is responsible for solving this problem, or even how much a problem it actually is."

Authors weigh in on $1.5 billion Anthropic AI copyright settlement; WGCU, August 3, 2026

Mike Kiniry, WGCU ; Authors weigh in on $1.5 billion Anthropic AI copyright settlement

"As Generative AI language models have entered the scene in recent years, a wave of copyright lawsuits has arisen in response, brought by authors and publishers. These lawsuits hinge on whether downloading and ingesting millions of copyrighted books without explicit permission to train Large Language Models constitutes copyright infringement or is protected as fair use.

Authors and publishers argue that it is infringement — particularly when AI developers illegally pirate or copy their books to help train their language models. AI companies argue that reading and learning from text is transformative and therefore falls under fair use.

In one class action lawsuit that was recently settled, the AI Company Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion dollars in a landmark copyright infringement settlement. It's one of the biggest in U.S. history.

There are other similar high-profile cases, including one by publishing houses including Hachette, Macmillan, and McGraw Hill, along with bestselling novelist and former President of the Author's Guild Scott Turow against Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and another against Google. Those cases are ongoing.

The Anthropic settlement means payments of roughly $3,100 to the authors and publishers of nearly half a million books, including our guests. We have a conversation about that settlement, and other pending cases, and what this all means for the publishing world.

Guests:

Marty Ambrose-McLaughlin is an award-winning author and English instructor at Florida Southwestern State College
Scott Turow is a writer and former attorney. He is the author of fourteen works of fiction, including Presumed Innocent and his most recent, Presumed Guilty which was published in 2025."

Authors have mixed feelings about the $1.5B Anthropic copyright infringement ruling; NPR, July 27, 2026

 Chloe Veltman , NPR; Authors have mixed feelings about the $1.5B Anthropic copyright infringement ruling

"Graeber is among the more than 300,000 writers involved in the suit who may soon be getting a modest windfall. A federal judge in San Francisco rubber stamped a $1.5 billion settlement in July resulting from a landmark class action lawsuit the authors brought against the AI company Anthropic two years ago...

AI companies often invoke the fair use doctrine – which enables the use of copyrighted works without the copyright holder's consent in some situations – as they try to make the case in court for training their models on these materials...

Chinese AI companies often use a technique to build their models called "AI distillation." This involves feeding their models the outputs generated by other AI models, often high-quality U.S.-based ones like OpenAI's GPT-4 or Anthropic's Claude, instead of directly training them on pirated copies of books by American authors...

One possible way for authors to get a fairer shake in the age of AI could be through the licensing of their work to AI companies...

There are already some such deals between publishers and AI companies in place, such as Perplexity AI's agreement with media entities like the Los Angeles Times and Le Monde to license content for the training of its models. There are also online licensing marketplaces, such as Created by Humans."

Anthropic's $1.5 Billion Copyright Settlement Sets a Bad Precedent; Reason, July 23, 2026

 TOSIN AKINTOLA, Reason; Anthropic's $1.5 Billion Copyright Settlement Sets a Bad Precedent

"The $1.5 billion award will be split among authors and publishers after fees and expenses are paid, netting everyone entitled to a claim roughly $3,000 per work, "four times the value of the statutory minimum," according to Nelson. 

Anthropic's decision to settle the case might hurt the company's pocketbook for now. Still, it likely avoids a court battle with even wider-reaching implications, since many AI companies use pirated data to train their models. Indeed, AI leaders such as Meta, Perplexity AI, Google, OpenAI, and Nvidia are facing lawsuits over similar copyright infringement claims. Anthropic is also being sued by Concord Music Group, which alleges that the company used copyrighted lyrics to train its Frontier AI model, Claude.

Time will tell how these disputes shake out, but courts placing restrictions on fair use of publicly available data will likely make AI models worse. Instead of settling potential copyright claims, AI companies will likely turn to a growing market for repositories of licensed copyrighted works. 

Of course, this will also make production of the models more expensive, a cost that will inevitably be passed on to consumers."

UK's Bloomsbury among beneficiaries of $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright lawsuit settlement; Reuters, July 22, 2026

 Reuters ; UK's Bloomsbury among beneficiaries of $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright lawsuit settlement

"Britain's Bloomsbury ​Publishing confirmed on Wednesday it was among ‌the beneficiaries of a landmark $1.5 billion settlement that resolves claims artificial intelligence ​company Anthropic used copyrighted books ​to train its AI models without ⁠purchasing the content.

Here are some ​more details:

• Bloomsbury said a U.S. court ​identified 14,087 of its titles covered by the settlement, with proposed compensation of ​about $3,000 per title, split equally ​between the author and publisher...
• The settlement ​is the largest known copyright payout ​in ⁠U.S. history."

Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out; Ars Technica, July 21, 2026

 ASHLEY BELANGER , Ars Technica; Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement approved; only 350 authors opted out

"On Monday, a judge approved a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors, ending the largest copyright class-action ever certified and granting the largest copyright settlement ever reached.

Back in May, some authors fought to block the settlement, which was proposed after the court ruled that Anthropic training AI on books was fair use; however, its piracy of works was likely not."

Publishers, Authors File Class Action Lawsuit Against Google; Publishers Weekly, July 13, 2026

 Jim Milliot , Publishers Weekly; Publishers, Authors File Class Action Lawsuit Against Google

"Publisher Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier, as well as author Scott Turow, are the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and the claims are being brought on behalf of themselves and a proposed class of authors and publishers. The suit follows an attempt by HBG and Cengage to join the Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation lawsuit first brought by a group of illustrators and writers in 2023, and which Google has been challenging the right for the publishers to participate.

With the new lawsuit, Cengage and HBG have withdrawn their motion to take part in the 2023 suit, observing that Google could assert that a three-year statute of limitations pertains to the class member claims. In light of that possibility, Hachette and Cengage “determined that they must take action to protect claims that appear to be outside the putative class in this action,” according to the motion to withdraw from the original suit.

Among the highlights in the new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, are that Google executives knew publishers would consider some of its plans to copy books as illegal, and despite facing huge potential monetary damages (a Google document notes the company “faced $10Bs-$100Bs” in potential fines) but went ahead and made copies anyway.

Publishers are especially annoyed that Google is using books that publishers provided the company to build its Google Books search service as part of an agreement to settle a long-running legal battle, per the complaint. While Google can use the books to provide “snippets,” the complaint states, “publishers and authors never authorized Google to copy the works they received for Google Books for the completely separate purpose of training its AI models and building a multi-billion dollar competing business.” The suit also goes after books that are part of Google Play Books for authorize resale and Google Scholar for research."

Has Trump Changed Democracy Forever? We Asked 11 Historians.; Politico, July 4, 2026

POLITICO MAGAZINE, Politico;  Has Trump Changed Democracy Forever? We Asked 11 Historians.

Experts on U.S. history look to the past — and the future.

"From a fledgling republic to a global superpower, the United States has constantly reinvented itself over the last 250 years.

Americans have expanded democracy and driven innovation. They’ve also confronted war, economic upheaval and long struggles over equality and justice.

Now, the country faces a new era of uncertainty: Americans are debating the United States’ role in the world, losing faith in its institutions and grappling with deep political and cultural divisions. In this moment, the semiquincentennial gives us the opportunity to evaluate the latest iteration of America — and how we got here.

To mark America 250, we asked 11 historians and writers to reflect on the lessons U.S. history has taught us. They told us what grade they’d give the current state of American democracy, what it means to be an American today and what the country needs to last another 250 years."

Dua Lipa Is Fighting Book Bans with a New 'Manifesto Library' She Calls a 'Shrine' to Banned Books; People, June 29, 2026

 Desiree Anello, People; Dua Lipa Is Fighting Book Bans with a New 'Manifesto Library' She Calls a 'Shrine' to Banned Books

"Dua Lipa is taking her book club to the next level. 

Three years after she founded Service95, a book club dedicated to "serving up insider recommendations and global stories featuring some of the world's most compelling voices," the pop star and bookworm, 30, celebrated the opening of her very first physical library. 

"This library is a shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage unmasks structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what book they're allowed," Lipa wrote in an Instagram post shared by Service95 Book Club and Livraria Lello. 

In her Manifesto Library, which opened on June 27 as part of the new BABELL - City of Books literary festival, Lipa will stock a diverse collection of books — including banned books — that relate to the themes of power, control, voice and memory. The permanent library resides inside the historic Livraria Lello Bookshop in Porto, Portugal."

Ann Patchett to Receive 2026 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction; Library of Congress, June 23, 2026

Library of Congress; Ann Patchett to Receive 2026 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction

"The Library of Congress has announced that the 2026 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction will be awarded to Ann Patchett at the National Book Festival on Aug. 22.

The annual Prize for American Fiction, one of the Library’s most prestigious awards, honors an American literary writer whose body of work is distinguished by its mastery of the art, as well as its originality of thought and imagination.

“Ann Patchett crafts moving, probing, tender novels. She has a talent for creating fiction that readers continually devour because she thinks deeply and writes evocatively about human connection,” said Acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen. “I am thrilled that she is the 2026 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction recipient.”

The award seeks to recognize strong, unique, enduring voices that, throughout long and consistently accomplished careers, have told us something about the American experience.

“The Library of Congress is one of our nation’s noblest institutions, and it’s full of librarians, who I consider to be the very noblest of people. I am grateful for this award and honored by the association,” said Patchett.

Recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award, the United Kingdom’s Women's Prize for Fiction and, most recently, the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, among other honors, Patchett is the author of 10 novels, including “The Dutch House” (Pulitzer Prize finalist), “The Patron Saint of Liars,” “Bel Canto,” “Commonwealth” and “Taft,” as well as nonfiction and children’s books. She was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and received the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. Her books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Nearly 15 years ago, Patchett opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee. She has since become an advocate for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores. She was the inaugural ambassador for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation and founded the Parnassus Books Foundation, which gives books to children in Title I schools in Nashville.

Patchett will discuss her latest book, “Whistler,” most recently the New York Times No. 1 bestseller, at the 2026 National Book Festival. The novel tells the story of a chance reunion of a grown daughter and her long-lost former stepfather whom she knew briefly during her childhood. Despite the many years that have passed, their indelible bond is evident as they revisit and reflect on the unique trajectories of their lives, revealing the transformative power of reconnection.

For more information on the prize, including previous winners, visit https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/prizes/fiction-prize/."

Anthropic, Nvidia Sway Judge to Split Authors’ AI Copyright Suit; Bloomberg Law, June 9, 2026

 Annelise Levy, Bloomberg Law; Anthropic, Nvidia Sway Judge to Split Authors’ AI Copyright Suit 

"A group of big tech companies convinced a federal judge to split up authors’ copyright lawsuit accusing them of pirating books to build artificial intelligence models.

The authors’ allegation that Anthropic PBC, Google LLC, Apple Inc., Nvidia Corp., Perplexity AI Inc., and xAI Corp. used the same library of pirated books to infringe isn’t sufficient to lump all of the companies into one lawsuit, Judge P. Casey Pitts of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled Monday. The lawsuit will proceed against Anthropic, and claims against the other companies are severed into five separate actions."

A uni professor admitted using AI to write an opinion piece. Here’s what it revealed about trust in the technology; The Guardian, June 5, 2026

Josh Taylor, The Guardian ; A uni professor admitted using AI to write an opinion piece. Here’s what it revealed about trust in the technology

"When a pro vice-chancellor at a university this week admitted to using AI in writing an opinion piece for a major Australian masthead, but did not disclose that use prior to publication, it highlighted the growing gap between people’s use of AI and trust in the technology."

How a Throwaway Line Turned Writers Against a Cheerleader for Children’s Books; The New York Times, May 22, 2026

 Elisabeth Egan , The New York Times; How a Throwaway Line Turned Writers Against a Cheerleader for Children’s Books

"Barnett was thrilled when he got word in the summer of 2024 that Carla Hayden, then the librarian of Congress, had named him national ambassador for young people’s literature...

He is the ninth author in the role. The program is a partnership between the Library of Congress and the literary nonprofit Every Child a Reader; previous honorees include Jon Scieszka, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds and Meg Medina...

“Make Believe” sparked a firestorm with a single line.

On Page 22 of the 102-page book, Barnett explains Sturgeon’s Law, in which the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon stated that “90 percent of everything is crud.”

Building on this idea, Barnett writes: “I have a nagging fear that children’s literature suffers from a slightly higher crud percentage than literature as a whole. So I now offer Barnett’s Addendum to Sturgeon’s Law: Maybe more like 94.7 percent of kids’ books are crud.”

Fellow children’s authors were aghast: How could their national ambassador say such a thing?...

Later I texted one final question: “Do you think you were wrong to say 94.7 percent of kids’ books are crud?”

Barnett responded, simply, “Yes, I should have used a different argument.”"