AI Copyright Litigation Tracker
Comprehensive tracking of copyright and related lawsuits filed against AI companies
Last Updated: October 19, 2025
Northern District of California
Bartz v. Anthropic
Judge: William Alsup
Content: Books
Filed: August 2024
Class action alleging unauthorized use of pirated e-books from LibGen and PiLiMi to train Claude. Judge ruled training with pirated materials constituted infringement.
Settlement: $1.5+ billion over 3 years ($300M each Oct 2 & approval, $450M Sept 2026, $450M Sept 2027)
Settlement reached August 26, 2025. Class certified July 2025 covering all U.S. copyright holders.
Kadrey v. Meta; Chabon v. Meta; Huckabee v. Meta; Farnsworth
Judge: Vince Chhabria
Content: Books
Filed: July 2023
Multiple authors including Michael Chabon, George R.R. Martin, and John Grisham alleging Meta used their copyrighted works to train LLaMA without authorization.
Key Plaintiffs: Sarah Silverman, Christopher Golden, Richard Kadrey, Mike Huckabee
In re OpenAI ChatGPT Litigation (Tremblay, Silverman, Chabon)
Judge: Araceli Martínez-Olguín
Content: Books
Filed: June 2023
Consolidated class action alleging OpenAI used copyrighted books scraped from Library Genesis and other piracy sites to train GPT models.
Key Plaintiffs: Paul Tremblay, Mona Awad, Michael Chabon, Sarah Silverman
Motion to dismiss pending. Fair use defense being contested.
Nazemian v. NVIDIA Corp.
Judge: Tigar
Content: Books
Filed: April 2024
Novelist Abdi Nazemian and other authors allege NVIDIA used their copyrighted literary works to train the NeMo (Neural Module) language models without permission. Case focuses on how NVIDIA sourced training data from popular literary works.
Plaintiffs: Abdi Nazemian and others
Dubus v. NVIDIA Corp.
Judge: Tigar
Content: Books
Filed: March 2024
Authors Andre Dubus III and David Gann allege NVIDIA trained its NeMo language models on their copyrighted books without authorization. Part of broader litigation against NVIDIA's AI training practices.
In re Mosaic LLM (O'Nan; Makkai)
Judge: Breyer
Content: Books
Filed: October 2023
Authors Stewart O'Nan and Rebecca Makkai, along with others, filed a consolidated class action against Mosaic ML (now Databricks) alleging unauthorized use of copyrighted literary works to train Mosaic's large language models. Case was transferred from Washington state to California.
Plaintiffs: Stewart O'Nan, Rebecca Makkai, and others
Hendrix v. Apple; Martinez-Conde v. Apple
Judge: Gonzalez Rogers; Labson Freeman
Content: Books
Filed: November 2023
Multiple authors, including Elena Hendrix (pseudonym for Sylvia Day) and Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde, allege Apple used their copyrighted books to train AI models for services like Siri and other Apple AI features without authorization. Concerns about Apple's AI training data sources.
Plaintiffs: Elena Hendrix, Susana Martinez-Conde, and others
Concord Music v. Anthropic
Judge: Lee
Content: Music
Filed: October 2023
Major music publisher Concord Music Group alleges Claude AI was trained on copyrighted song lyrics without permission. Case involves thousands of compositions and raises questions about AI reproducing copyrighted lyrics verbatim.
Plaintiff: Concord Music Group
Doe 1 v. Github, Microsoft, OpenAI
Judge: Tigar
Content: Code
Appeal pending in 9th Circuit
Sarah Andersen v. Stability AI, Deviant Art, Midjourney, Runway AI
Judge: Orrick
Content: Art
Filed: January 2023
Comic artist Sarah Andersen and others allege image generation AIs (Stable Diffusion, Midjourney) used their copyrighted artwork for training without permission. First major copyright case involving visual AI art generation. Several claims dismissed, but core copyright claim proceeding.
Plaintiffs: Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, Karla Ortiz
Landmark case testing copyright in AI-generated art. Dismissed trademark claims but copyright claim survived.
In re Google Gen. AI Ltgn. (Zhang, Leovy)
Judge: Lee
Content: Social Media
Filed: June 2023
Consolidated class action alleging Google used copyrighted content from social media platforms, personal blogs, and websites to train its AI models (Bard/Gemini) without authorization. Plaintiffs include content creators.
Plaintiffs: Jing Zhang, Joshua Leovy, and others
Denial v. OpenAI
Judge: Chen
Content: Articles
Filed: June 2023
Investigative journalist Jonathan Denial alleges OpenAI used his copyrighted articles to train ChatGPT without authorization. Case alleges direct copying and seeks compensation for unauthorized use of journalism.
Strike 3 Holdings v. Meta
Judge: Lee
Content: Video
Filed: February 2024
Adult entertainment company Strike 3 Holdings alleges Meta used copyrighted video content to train its AI systems without authorization. First major case involving video content in AI training.
Getty Images v. Stability AI
Judge: Thompson
Content: Images
Filed: February 2023
Stock photo agency Getty Images alleges Stability AI scraped millions of its copyrighted images to train Stable Diffusion without permission. Case also filed in UK courts. Claims include direct copying of watermarks.
Plaintiff: Getty Images
Brave Software v. News Corp.
Judge: Breyer
Content: News
Voluntarily dismissed
Tanzer v. Salesforce
Content: Books
Filed: 2025
Author Tanzer alleges Salesforce used copyrighted books to train its AI language models without authorization. Case details still emerging.
Recently filed case
Southern District of New York
In re: OpenAI Copyright Infringement Ltgn. (Authors Guild v. OpenAI, Alter, Basbanes)
Judge: Stein
Content: Books
Filed: September 2023
The Authors Guild and prominent writers including George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, and David Baldacci allege OpenAI systematically copied their works to train ChatGPT. Also includes class action by Julian Sancton (lead plaintiff) and others.
Plaintiffs: Authors Guild, George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, David Baldacci
New York Times v. OpenAI; Daily News v. Microsoft
Content: News
Filed: December 2024
Major media organizations alleging OpenAI and Microsoft used millions of NYT articles to train AI models. Case alleges direct competition with news content and seeks damages in billions.
Plaintiffs: New York Times Company, NY Daily News
Key battle over fair use in training vs. direct competition. Millions of articles allegedly copied.
Center for Inv. Rep. v OpenAI
Content: Magazine
Filed: June 2023
Center for Investigative Reporting, publisher of Mother Jones magazine, alleges OpenAI used their copyrighted articles to train ChatGPT without authorization. Part of wave of news media copyright litigation.
Plaintiff: Center for Investigative Reporting
Raw Story v. OpenAI
Content: Articles
Filed: June 2023
Digital news publisher Raw Story alleges OpenAI used their investigative journalism articles to train ChatGPT. District court dismissed most claims but allowed some to proceed. Appeal filed in 2nd Circuit.
Plaintiff: Raw Story Media
Appeal pending in 2nd Circuit after partial dismissal by district court.
Intercept v. OpenAI
Content: Articles
Filed: July 2023
Independent news organization The Intercept alleges OpenAI used their copyrighted investigative articles to train ChatGPT without permission. Focuses on unauthorized use of journalism for AI training.
Plaintiff: The Intercept
Millette v. OpenAI
Content: Articles
Filed: June 2023
Content creator David Millette alleges OpenAI used his copyrighted articles and blog posts to train ChatGPT. Also filed parallel cases against Google and NVIDIA that were dismissed or transferred.
Denial v. OpenAI
Content: Articles
Filed: June 2023
SDNY version of Denial v. OpenAI (also filed in ND Cal). Investigative journalist Jonathan Denial alleges unauthorized use of his articles to train ChatGPT.
Ziff Davis v. OpenAI
Content: Articles
Filed: June 2023
Digital media publisher Ziff Davis (owner of Mashable, PCMag, AskMen) alleges OpenAI used their copyrighted content to train ChatGPT without authorization. Case transferred from Delaware to SDNY.
Bird v. Microsoft
Judge: Stein
Content: Books
Huckabee v. Bloomberg
Judge: Garnett
Content: Books
Dow Jones v. Perplexity AI
Judge: Polk Failla
Content: News
Encyclo. Brit. v. Perplexity AI; Rochon
Content: Encyclopedia
Advance Loc. Media v. Cohere
Judge: McMahon
Content: News
UMG Recordings v. Unch. Labs
Judge: Hellerstein
Content: Music
Justice v. Uncharted Labs
Judge: Garnett
Content: Music
Lehrman v. Lovo
Judge: Oetken
Content: Voice/Audio
Filed: February 2024
Voice artist Rick Lehrman alleges Lovo (AI voice generation platform) used his copyrighted voice recordings to train voice cloning models without authorization. Case raises questions about voice likeness rights.
Plaintiff: Rick Lehrman
Central District of California
Alcon Ent. v. Tesla
Judge: Wu
Content: Cartoon/Character
Filed: June 2024
Alcon Entertainment alleges Tesla trained its Full Self-Driving (FSD) vision systems on copyrighted characters and artwork without authorization. Unique case involving AI training for automotive applications.
Plaintiff: Alcon Entertainment
Disney v. Midjourney
Judge: Kronstadt
Content: Cartoon/Character
Filed: March 2024
Disney alleges Midjourney trained its AI on copyrighted Disney characters and artworks without permission. Focuses on AI-generated characters that closely resemble Disney properties.
Warner Bros. v. Midjourney
Content: Cartoon/Character
Filed: March 2024
Warner Bros. alleges Midjourney used their copyrighted characters and visual styles to train AI image generation models. Part of entertainment industry's pushback against AI-generated content.
Disney v. MiniMax
Judge: Blumenfeld Jr.
Content: Cartoon/Character
Filed: January 2024
Disney alleging Chinese AI company MiniMax used copyrighted Disney characters to train its image generation models. Cross-border copyright case involving AI training.
Millette v. OpenAI
Content: Articles
Millette v. Google
Content: Articles
Voluntarily dismissed
Millette v. NVIDIA
Judge: Davila
Content: Articles
Voluntarily dismissed - Transferred to Delaware
Delaware
Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Int.
Judge: Bibas
Content: Books
Appeal pending in 3rd Circuit
Vacker v. Eleven Labs
Judge: Andrews
Content: Code
Ziff Davis v. OpenAI
Chief Judge: Connolly
Content: Articles
Transferred to SDNY
Other Jurisdictions
Pierce v. Photobucket (District of Columbia)
Judge: Brimmer
Content: Photos
Woulard v. Unch. Labs (ND Illinois)
Judge: Ellis
Content: Music
Filed: October 2023
Musician Woulard alleges Uncharted Labs used copyrighted music to train Udio AI music generator. Case was transferred from Northern District of Illinois to SDNY.
Transferred to SDNY
UMG Recordings v. Suno (District of Massachusetts)
Judge: Saylor IV
Content: Music
Transferred to SDNY
Justice v. Suno (District of Massachusetts)
Judge: Saylor IV
Content: Music
Transferred to SDNY