Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit

In a blow to Anthropic, the court finds that using expressive, published works—central to LLM training—counts against fair use under the second statutory factor. Key precedents like Campbell and Harper & Row were cited, reinforcing protections even for fact-based creative arrangements.


This content originally appeared on HackerNoon and was authored by Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases

:::tip ANDREA BARTZ, CHARLES GRAEBER, and KIRK WALLACE JOHNSON v. ANTHROPIC PBC, retrieved on June 25, 2025, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This is part 7 of 10.

:::

2. THE NATURE OF THE COPYRIGHTED WORK

The second fair use factor is “the nature of the copyrighted work.” 17 U.S.C. § 107(2). This factor “calls for recognition that some works are closer to the core of intended copyright protection than others, with the consequence that fair use is more difficult to establish when the former works are copied.” Campbell, 510 U.S. at 586. For one thing, less protection is due published works than unpublished ones. For another, less protection is due “factual works than works of fiction or fantasy.” Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 563. But less protection is not no protection. Even the arrangement of otherwise unprotectable facts surpasses the low bar for a protectable original work of authorship. Google, 804 F.3d at 220.

Here, Anthropic accepts that all of Authors’ books — all published, whether non-fiction or fiction — contained expressive elements (Reply 9). And, as set out above, this order accepts Authors’ view of the evidence that their works were chosen for their expressive qualities in building a central library and then in training specific LLMs (Opp. 11, 17 (citing, e.g., Opp. Exh. 3 at -03433)).

The main function of the second factor is to help assess the other factors: to reveal differences between the nature of the works at issue and the nature of their secondary use (above), and to reveal any relation between the amount and substantiality of each work taken and the secondary use (next). E.g., Campbell, 510 U.S. at 586; Kelly, 336 F.3d at 820; Google, 804 F.3d at 220; HathiTrust, 755 F.3d at 98; Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 448 F.3d 605, 612–13 (2d Cir. 2006).

The second factor points against fair use for all copies alike.


:::tip Continue reading HERE.

:::


:::info About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.

\ This court case retrieved on June 25, 2025, from storage.courtlistener.com, is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction.

:::

\


This content originally appeared on HackerNoon and was authored by Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases


Print Share Comment Cite Upload Translate Updates
APA

Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases | Sciencx (2025-07-02T09:00:08+00:00) Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/02/published-fiction-at-center-of-fair-use-dispute-in-anthropic-ai-training-lawsuit/

MLA
" » Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit." Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases | Sciencx - Wednesday July 2, 2025, https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/02/published-fiction-at-center-of-fair-use-dispute-in-anthropic-ai-training-lawsuit/
HARVARD
Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases | Sciencx Wednesday July 2, 2025 » Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit., viewed ,<https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/02/published-fiction-at-center-of-fair-use-dispute-in-anthropic-ai-training-lawsuit/>
VANCOUVER
Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases | Sciencx - » Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit. [Internet]. [Accessed ]. Available from: https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/02/published-fiction-at-center-of-fair-use-dispute-in-anthropic-ai-training-lawsuit/
CHICAGO
" » Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit." Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases | Sciencx - Accessed . https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/02/published-fiction-at-center-of-fair-use-dispute-in-anthropic-ai-training-lawsuit/
IEEE
" » Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit." Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases | Sciencx [Online]. Available: https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/02/published-fiction-at-center-of-fair-use-dispute-in-anthropic-ai-training-lawsuit/. [Accessed: ]
rf:citation
» Published Fiction at Center of Fair Use Dispute in Anthropic AI Training Lawsuit | Legal PDF: Tech Court Cases | Sciencx | https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/02/published-fiction-at-center-of-fair-use-dispute-in-anthropic-ai-training-lawsuit/ |

Please log in to upload a file.




There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.

You must be logged in to translate posts. Please log in or register.