Federal Judge Grants Final Approval on $1.5 Billion AI Suit
On Thursday, September 24, a federal judge granted final approval for a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors alleging their pirated books were used to train Claude models, as reported by CBS News.
In a statement regarding the settlement, the Authors Guild stressed: “The Anthropic copyright infringement settlement…does not come close to remedying the harm to the publishing ecosystem caused by AI companies using books and journalism as foundational components of their large language models. While the settlement compensates authors and publishers for Anthropic’s act of downloading books from pirate sites, AI models continue to gorge books without the consent of their authors and publishers, now through destructive scanning. As an industry we face a decisive moment, and it behooves us all to look out for each other.”
Anthropic will pay affected writers and publishers approximately $3,000 per work for roughly 500,000 eligible titles, marking a significant turning point in AI copyright disputes. This the first major US settlement among dozens of copyright cases against AI companies.
ABA has created this FAQ on the Anthropic settlement and what it means for booksellers.
Common Cents Act Passes Via Unanimous Consent
This week, in what was a huge victory for independent bookstores and all retailers, the Common Cents Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent and now heads to the President’s desk. The bill that the Senate passed was modified slightly in that it does not explicitly instruct the Treasury to stop minting the penny, according to The Hill. ABA thanks the many bookstore members who reached out to congress in support of this important bill.
Since the US Mint halted penny production over a year ago, Main Street businesses across the country have faced significant operational hurdles regarding cash transactions. Currently, more than 15 states have enacted their own, often conflicting, laws governing cash rounding, creating confusion and exposing businesses to potential legal challenges and financial losses.
The bipartisan Common Cents Act establishes a federal standard for cash rounding and provides a safe harbor from liability. Please be sure to send your senators a thank you for passing the bill before the recess.
PRH Continues Banned Books Week Tradition In Support of ABFE
During Banned Books Week, Penguin Random House (PRH) will be conducting a promotion to support American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE) in its efforts to defend free expression. As part of its Banned Books Week campaign, the publisher will donate $1 to ABFE for every Penguin Random House title purchased on Penguin Random House, up to $15,000.
To participate, readers can purchase a PRH book during Banned Books Week (October 4–10). | 
