Does scale turn reading into theft?

Question

The machine didn't buy the ten million books it learned from. Neither do library patrons — but no patron ever read all ten million at once, without asking, and remembered every word.

Accepted Answer

In 2025 Anthropic paid authors a $1.5B settlement — about $3,000 per pirated book — the first time an AI lab wrote a check to a training-data class. The courts drew the line at HOW you get the books, not whether machines may read. Remember the cover band: pay, but don't ask. (59% of Americans answer "Scale changes it" — AI Policy Institute, 2024)