Anthropic legally destroyed millions of used books after scanning them to train its AI, Claude, a federal judge confirmed in June 2025. The ruling hinged on the decades-old first-sale doctrine, which allows book owners to resell, lend, or dispose of physical copies as they wish.
According to Judge William Alsup, Anthropic's purchase and subsequent destruction of the print copies meant no additional copy was retained digitally since the paper version was shredded. This replaced the physical book instead of creating a duplicate, keeping the practice within legal boundaries.
Anthropic didn’t just buy books. Before paying, it obtained vast libraries of pirated titles, including nearly 200,000 from Books3 and millions more from other unauthorized sources. After those sources triggered lawsuits and a $1.5 billion court-ordered payout, the company shifted to acquiring physical books from suppliers such as Better World Books and World of Books. These copies were cut open, scanned page by page, then destroyed.
Despite the piracy settlement, Anthropic still faces additional claims, including a $75 million lawsuit and legal challenges from music publishers over song lyrics. The case sheds light on the murky intersection of AI training and copyright law as the industry scrambles to acquire massive text datasets.
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