Anthropic Settles $1.5B Piracy Case While Court Allows Destruction of Purchased Books

Executive Briefing

• Approves $1.5 billion settlement covering nearly 500,000 books pirated from shadow libraries LibGen and PiLiMi.
• Distinguishes piracy liability from fair use: courts allowed Anthropic to buy, scan, and destroy physical books legally.
• Treats format conversion of lawfully purchased print books as fair use, provided scans remain private and undistributed.
• Raises alarm among Australian secondhand booksellers after bulk orders for obscure, decades-old local titles surged.
• Reveals critical legal gap: unauthorized downloads create liability while physically dismantling purchased copies may not.