A federal judge has issued a landmark fair use decision in a generative-AI copyright infringement lawsuit.
In a previous blog post, I wrote about the fair use decision in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS. As I explained there, that case involved a search-and-retrieval AI system, so the holding was not determinative of fair use in the context of generative AI. Now we finally have a decision that addresses fair use in the generative-AI context.
Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC
I did not include this case in my list of the top 12 generative-AI lawsuits, but only because it was one among many raising the same basic questions about training AI on copyright-protected works. This issue was well represented by others on the list. As it happens, though, Bartz has now taken on enhanced significance because the judge in the case has issued an important ruling on fair use.
Anthropic is an AI software firm founded by former OpenAI employees. It offers a generative-AI tool called Claude. Like other generative-AI tools, Claude mimics human conversational skills. When a user enters a text prompt, Claude will generate a response that is very much like one a human being might make (except it is sometimes more knowledgeable.) It is able to do this by using large language models (LLMs) that have been trained on millions of books and texts.
Adrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson are book authors. In August 2024, they sued Anthropic, claiming the company infringed the copyrights in their works. Specifically, they alleged that Anthropic copied their works from pirated and purchased sources, digitized print versions, assembled them into a central library, and used the library to train LLMs, all without permission. Anthropic asserted, among other things, a fair use defense.
Earlier this year, Anthropic filed a motion for summary judgment on the question of fair use.
On June 23, 2025, Judge Alsup issued an order granting summary judgment in part and denying it in part. It is the first major ruling on fair use in the dozens of generative-AI copyright infringement lawsuits that are currently pending in federal courts.
The Order includes several key rulings.
Digitization
Anthropic acquired both pirated and lawfully purchased printed copies of copyright-protected works and digitized them to create a central e-library. Authors claimed that making digital copies of their works infringed the exclusive right of copyright owners to reproduce their works. (See 17 U.S.C. 106.)
In the process of scanning print books to create digital versions of them, the print copies were destroyed. Book bindings were stripped so that each individual page could be scanned. The print copies were then discarded. The digital copies were not distributed to others. Under these circumstances, the court ruled that making digital versions of print books is fair use.
The court likened format to a frame around a work, as distinguished from the work itself. As such, a digital version is not a new derivative work. Rather, it is a transformative use of an existing work. So long as the digital version is merely a substitute for a print version a person has lawfully acquired, and so long as the print version is destroyed and the digital version is not further copied or distributed to others, then digitizing a printed work is fair use. This is consistent with the first sale doctrine (17 U.S.C. 109(a)), which gives the purchaser of a copy of a work a right to dispose of that particular copy as the purchaser sees fit.
In short, the mere conversion of a lawfully acquired print book to a digital file to save space and enable searchability is transformative, and so long as the print version is destroyed and the digital version is not further copied or distributed, it is fair use.
AI Training Is Transformative Fair Use
The authors did not contend that Claude generated infringing output. Instead, they argued that copies of their works were used as inputs to train the AI. The Copyright Act, however, does not prohibit or restrict the reading or analysis of copyrighted works. So long as a copy is lawfully purchased, the owner of the purchased copy can read it and think about it as often as he or she wishes.
[I]f someone were to read all the modern-day classics because of their exceptional expression, memorize them, and then emulate a blend of their best writing, would that violate the Copyright Act? Of course not.
Judge Alsup described AI training as “spectacularly” transformative.” Id. After considering all four fair use factors, he concluded that training AI on lawfully acquired copyright-protected works (as distinguished from the initial acquisition of copies) is fair use.
Pirating Is Not Fair Use
In addition to lawfully purchasing copies of some works, Anthropic also acquired infringing copies of works from pirate sites. Judge Alsup ruled that these, and uses made from them, are not fair use. The case will now proceed to trial on the issue of damages resulting from the infringement.
Conclusion
Each of these rulings seems, well, sort of obvious. It is nice to have the explanations laid out so clearly in one place, though.
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