Overview

• At a Sept. 8 hearing, Judge William Alsup declined preliminary approval and set a Sept. 15 deadline for a finalized “works list,” a Sept. 22 deadline for a claims form, and a follow-up hearing on Sept. 25.
• Alsup criticized the proposal as “nowhere close to complete,” flagging missing documentation on the works and class lists, the notice plan, the claims process, and how multi-claimant works would be handled.
• The judge warned against pressuring authors to accept the deal and questioned the behind‑the‑scenes roles of the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, insisting on clear choices for class members.
• The proposed settlement would pay about $3,000 per eligible work for roughly 465,000–500,000 titles, requires destruction of pirated copies, contains no admission of liability, and leaves Anthropic’s trained models intact; it covers past conduct through Aug. 25, 2025.
• A June ruling found training on lawfully obtained books can be fair use but retaining pirated texts is infringement; if the deal collapses, the case could proceed to a December trial.