A California federal judge has denied artificial intelligence firm Anthropic’s request to pause a lawsuit concerning its use of copyrighted books to train its large language models (LLMs). The company sought to appeal a prior ruling that determined a jury would decide whether damages were warranted for the use of pirated works.
In August 2024, authors including Kirk Wallace Johnson, Andrea Bartz, and Charles Graeber filed a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging that the company used pirated copies of their works to train its LLMs. The plaintiffs claimed that Anthropic’s actions constituted copyright infringement.
On June 23, 2025, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted summary judgment in favor of Anthropic, ruling that the use of digital copies of the plaintiffs’ works for training purposes was fair use. However, the court found that Anthropic had utilized millions of pirated library copies, and such use could not be considered fair use. Consequently, the case was ordered to proceed to trial to determine damages related to the use of these pirated copies.
Anthropic subsequently requested a pause in the proceedings to appeal the ruling on the use of pirated works. The recent decision by the federal judge to deny this request means that the case will continue without delay, moving forward to address the issue of damages.
This case is part of a broader legal landscape where AI companies face scrutiny over their use of copyrighted materials. In June 2025, Reddit filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging that the company scraped data from its website in violation of its user agreement. These legal challenges highlight the ongoing tension between AI development and copyright law, as courts grapple with the implications of using copyrighted content to train AI models.
The outcome of these cases could have significant implications for the AI industry, particularly concerning the boundaries of fair use and the responsibilities of AI developers in sourcing training data. As the legal proceedings continue, stakeholders across the technology and creative sectors will be closely monitoring developments to understand the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and copyright law.