Federal Judge Approves Record $1.5 Billion AI Copyright Settlement

A federal judge granted final approval to Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement on July 20, 2026. Roughly 482,000 works are covered; 91% of rights holders are claiming shares. Lead lawyer Justin Nelson called it the largest copyright recovery in history. Nearly 120,000 authors and publishers are participating. It is the first major resolution among dozens of pending US AI copyright lawsuits.