--- title: Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books?... description: Legal experts unpack the murky state of copyright law as it applies to training AI models on books and other copyrighted works. Judge William Alsup's ruling in... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/is-it-legal-to-train-ai-models-on-copyrighted-books-it-s-complicated-roiafcnyv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? It’s complicated | daily.dev og:description: Legal experts unpack the murky state of copyright law as it applies to training AI models on books and other copyrighted works. Judge William Alsup's ruling in... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/is-it-legal-to-train-ai-models-on-copyrighted-books-it-s-complicated-roiafcnyv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/rOiAfCNYV.png og:image:alt: Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? It’s complicated og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? It’s complicated **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Legal experts unpack the murky state of copyright law as it applies to training AI models on books and other copyrighted works. Judge William Alsup's ruling in the Anthropic case found that training itself was lawful fair use, but Anthropic was fined $1.5 billion for pirating books from shadow libraries rather than for the training itself. A contrasting ruling in Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence found training was not fair use when it directly competed with the copyright holder. Attorneys note copyright law hasn't been updated since 1976 and courts remain inconsistent, with most major AI copyright cases still in litigation. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Was Anthropic's use of copyrighted books to train its AI models ruled illegal? No, Judge William Alsup ruled that Anthropic's AI training itself was lawful, comparing an LLM ingesting text to a writer studying literature. Anthropic was instead penalized with a $1.5 billion settlement specifically for pirating the books from illegal shadow libraries, not for the act of training on them. _Follow how courts are shaping AI training legality on daily.dev as more copyright rulings emerge._ ### Why did Thomson Reuters win its copyright case against Ross Intelligence over AI training? Judge Stephanos Bibas ruled that Ross Intelligence's use of Thomson Reuters' content was not transformative because it lacked a further purpose or different character, since Ross built a directly competing AI-based legal platform. This contrasts with cases where AI training doesn't directly compete with the original content's market. _Developers weighing AI training and competition risk can track these precedents on daily.dev._ ### Is content generated entirely by AI eligible for copyright protection? No, in Thaler v. Perlmutter the court ruled that a work that is 100% AI-generated is not copyrightable. This raises unresolved questions about how to determine what percentage of a work must involve human authorship or AI assistance to qualify for copyright protection. _Anyone building AI-generated content workflows can follow evolving copyright rules on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [John Carreyrou and other authors bring new lawsuit against six major AI companies](https://daily.dev/posts/john-carreyrou-and-other-authors-bring-new-lawsuit-against-six-major-ai-companies-lxx8mmcvq) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Schneier on Security](https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-dpcmbdroy) · Schneier on Security · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Anthropic and OpenAI ask Australia to ease its ban on AI training with local content](https://daily.dev/posts/anthropic-and-openai-ask-australia-to-ease-its-ban-on-ai-training-with-local-content-7rqe6vm78) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/is-it-legal-to-train-ai-models-on-copyrighted-books-it-s-complicated-roiafcnyv) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? 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Follow how courts are shaping AI training legality on daily.dev as more copyright rulings emerge."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did Thomson Reuters win its copyright case against Ross Intelligence over AI training?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Judge Stephanos Bibas ruled that Ross Intelligence's use of Thomson Reuters' content was not transformative because it lacked a further purpose or different character, since Ross built a directly competing AI-based legal platform. This contrasts with cases where AI training doesn't directly compete with the original content's market. Developers weighing AI training and competition risk can track these precedents on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is content generated entirely by AI eligible for copyright protection?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No, in Thaler v. Perlmutter the court ruled that a work that is 100% AI-generated is not copyrightable. This raises unresolved questions about how to determine what percentage of a work must involve human authorship or AI assistance to qualify for copyright protection. Anyone building AI-generated content workflows can follow evolving copyright rules on daily.dev."}}]} ```