Short answer: On 20 July 2026 a US judge granted final approval of a $1.5 billion class settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic, over the company’s past acquisition and copying of books. The official settlement site says the court approved the deal on that date, that the deadline to submit a claim was 30 March 2026, and that the parties currently expect to send the first round of payments on or before 15 November 2026 for works with no allocation dispute and with all required payment information. The court described an approximately $3,000 per-work figure, often split between authors and publishers. The release covers past acquisition and copying through 25 August 2025, not output claims or future conduct, and not works left off the Works List. A TimeBind cannot get you paid or show that a title was in a training set. It can date the manuscript files you still have, which remains useful for work you write next.
Last checked 12 November 2026. General information for authors, not legal advice about the settlement, your contract, tax or a claim. The deadline to submit a claim was 30 March 2026 and has passed. TimeBinder is not the settlement administrator, does not check the Works List, and a dated record is not proof that a book was used in training, that you are owed a payment, or that you own a copyright.
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Table of Contents
What the court approved
On 20 July 2026, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval of the class settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic and entered final judgment, the official settlement website and the Authors Guild both record. Reuters, on 20 July 2026 (updated 21 July), described it as the largest known payout in a US copyright case, in a lawsuit brought by authors who accused Anthropic of misusing their books to train its chatbot Claude. Some authors and publishers, Reuters noted, opted out and continue separate cases.
The Authors Guild’s 21 July 2026 summary of the approval order, alongside the official site, is the source for the terms below:
- The settlement fund is $1.5 billion. The court described approximately $3,000 per work as four times the statutory minimum of $750 for ordinary infringement.
- Class members release claims relating to Anthropic’s past acquisition and copying of their works — the inputs side — through 25 August 2025. Claims based on AI outputs are not released, and neither are claims about future conduct. Works that are not on the Works List release nothing, even if they might otherwise have looked like class works.
- Anthropic is required to destroy original Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror files, and copies originating from them, subject to legal preservation obligations. The Guild also records Anthropic’s representation that neither dataset was in the training corpus of any commercially released model. That is a representation, not a finding we independently verified.
- Payments follow a court-approved plan of allocation. For non-education works there are elected default splits, or the percentages in the publishing contract. A special master, Theodore K. Cheng, is to resolve disputes among claimants on a given work.
The official site, read on 12 November 2026, says the deadline to exclude yourself or object was 9 February 2026, the deadline to submit a claim was 30 March 2026, and both have passed. Between 2 and 4 September 2026 the administrator sent claim-information notices to claimants with a valid email address. The first round of payments is currently expected on or before 15 November 2026 for works on which claimants do not disagree about allocation (or quickly agree) and for which all information required to process payment has been provided. Works still in dispute will not be in that first distribution; the money otherwise due is to be held in reserve for a later one.
A widely shared 28 October 2026 X post by Vigilant Fox (429,556 impressions, 6,264 likes when we read it) discussed a Joe Rogan segment about AI companies buying physical books, scanning them and discarding the originals. That post is evidence of public attention, not a court document. For what the settlement requires, use the official site and the approval order.
If you already claimed, or if you missed the deadline
This page is not a claims service and cannot tell you what you will be paid. If you submitted a valid claim, use the official site to log in with the claim number and PIN from your notice, update payment details, and watch for allocation questions. Where co-claimants disagree, the administrator asked for supporting information within 60 days of access to the consolidated claim information (extended from 30 days). Unresolved works miss the first payment run.
If you did not submit a claim by 30 March 2026, the official site says you may not be paid, or may not receive the maximum possible recovery, and the opt-out window for a separate case on the released claims has also passed. We are not advising anyone to try a late claim. If your book is not on the Works List, the court said those claims are preserved; that is a question for your own counsel.
Authors who opted out are in a different position. We are not summarising later complaints here.
What writers should keep, including for work you have not sold
The settlement is about a closed set of past copies. It does not date your next manuscript, and it does not create a habit for later disputes — including output-based claims, which the release does not cover, or a later accusation that a book was written with a chatbot. For that, the useful files are ordinary:
- The manuscript as submitted, and important intermediate drafts, each kept as a distinct file.
- A side-by-side record of what you sent a publisher, agent or prize, and when.
- Contracts and allocation documents, if a payment or a co-claim is in play — those belong with the administrator and your agent or lawyer, not in a marketing article.
A writing tool that keeps a project history, such as Scrivener (affiliate link), can help you hold those draft stages in one place. It is not a dated, independent record of an exact file. For that, date the files you actually need to be able to show later. Our guide to dating a manuscript before you submit it and the writers hub set out that routine. If the question you have is an accusation that you used AI, rather than that a company copied your book, see what the Goncourt coverage showed about detectors and drafts.
What a TimeBind does and does not show
A TimeBind is a dated, checkable record that an exact file existed no later than a recorded time and still matches. The SHA-256 fingerprint is made in your browser and the file is never uploaded. The record is anchored to Bitcoin (a Merkle root in an OP_RETURN). Your first Pooled TimeBind is free; after that, TimeBinds start from US$5, and an ASAP TimeBind is US$15. See how it works.
A TimeBind can date a manuscript, a draft or a delivery file you still have. It cannot show that a title was on the Works List, that Anthropic copied or trained on it, that you are a legal or beneficial owner, or that a payment is due. It is not a claim form, and it does not replace the settlement administrator.
Limits
We have not read every docket entry, and we are not restating the earlier summary-judgment rulings in the case except where the approval coverage itself is clear. Dollar amounts above are from the court’s approval order as reported by the Authors Guild and Reuters, not from a TimeBinder calculation. First-payment timing is the administrator’s expectation as of the official site on 12 November 2026, and it is limited to undisputed, complete claims. Tax, publisher-contract splits and late appeals are outside this page.
Tools that can help
For the settlement itself: the official settlement website, the allocation portal linked from it, and, for Guild members, the Guild’s legal team. For your own drafts going forward, a project tool such as Scrivener (affiliate link) plus a dated copy of the exact file you may need to show later. You can also hash a local file in the browser with our SHA-256 checker if you only need a fingerprint, which is not the same as a TimeBind.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Can I still file a claim?
The official site says the deadline to submit a claim was 30 March 2026 and has passed. This page cannot reopen that window.
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When will authors be paid?
The official site, read on 12 November 2026, currently expects the first round of payments on or before 15 November 2026, but only for works with no remaining allocation disagreement and with all required payment information. Other works are to be paid later.
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Does the settlement mean training on books is lawful or unlawful?
It is a settlement of specified past claims about acquisition and copying, with a narrow release. It is not a general ruling that all AI training is allowed or forbidden. Output claims and future conduct are not released, and works off the Works List are not released.
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If my book is not on the Works List, did I lose my rights?
The court, as summarised by the Authors Guild, said claims arising from works not on the list are preserved and unaffected. What that means in a later case is a question for a lawyer, not for a timestamping company.
Sources checked
- Official Anthropic Copyright Settlement site, homepage and Key Dates, read 12 November 2026, https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/ and https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/dates
- Blake Brittain, “US judge approves Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement of copyright lawsuit,” Reuters, 20 July 2026, updated 21 July 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-approves-anthropics-15-billion-settlement-copyright-lawsuit-2026-07-20/
- Authors Guild, “Court Grants Final Approval of $1.5 Billion Anthropic Copyright Settlement,” 21 July 2026, https://authorsguild.org/news/court-grants-final-approval-anthropic-copyright-settlement/
- Vigilant Fox, X post, 28 October 2026, https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/2115542367310692407 (429,556 impressions when checked 12 November 2026)
Date the next manuscript you may need to show
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