# Anthropic settles AI copyright lawsuit over Project Panama > Live situation record from CLSTR: https://clstr.news/situations/anthropic-book-scanning-controversy > Updated: 2026-08-10T02:12:33.000Z. Sources: 13. Developments: 4. In July 2026, Anthropic launched “Project Panama,” an initiative involving the mass acquisition of out-of-print and rare books for training its Claude AI chatbot. The process involved purchasing tens of thousands of volumes from suppliers like Better World Books, using hydraulic presses to remove covers, cutting spines for high-speed scanning, and subsequently shredding or recycling the physical copies into products such as cardboard and toilet paper. While Anthropic argued this “destructive scanning” constituted transformative fair use, critics and booksellers in Spain, Germany, New Zealand, and the Netherlands described the practice as a form of “cultural barbarism” that threatens unique historical texts. By August 2026, the controversy reached a legal resolution. Anthropic reached a settlement in the ‘Bartz v. Anthropic PBC’ class-action lawsuit, agreeing to pay approximately $1.5 billion to affected authors and nearly $19 million to publishers, including Bloomsbury Publishing. Although the court ruled that training AI models on copyrighted material can be considered “fair use” due to its transformative nature, the settlement specifically addressed the acquisition of pirated or unauthorized content. The litigation also brought further scrutiny to the bibliographic database ISBNdb, which reportedly offered services to source up to one million books for tech companies. While ISBNdb denied purchasing or destroying books, claiming its role was merely a “market test,” the settlement concludes a period of intense scrutiny regarding the industrial-scale digitization of global cultural heritage. ## Claims - The purchased books were shredded, scanned, and digitized to create training data for Claude. (corroborated by 6 sources) - Hydraulic presses were used to remove book covers before pages were cut and scanned. (corroborated by 6 sources) - The shredded paper was later recycled into products such as toilet paper and cardboard. (corroborated by 6 sources) - Anthropic purchased tens of thousands of books from Better World Books and World of Books for training its AI chatbot Claude. (corroborated by 4 sources) - The operation was called Project Panama and began in early 2024. (corroborated by 4 sources) - Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company wanted to keep the project secret. (corroborated by 4 sources) - The project aimed to improve Claude's ability to write well rather than mimic internet slang. (corroborated by 4 sources) - Anthropic used millions of books to train its Claude AI model. (corroborated by 3 sources) - Anthropic agreed to pay approximately $1.5 billion to affected authors as part of a settlement. (corroborated by 3 sources) - The court ruled that training language models on copyrighted material can constitute fair use under U.S. law. (corroborated by 2 sources) - ISBNdb denied purchasing, scanning, or destroying books for AI training, claiming its service offer was a market test. (corroborated by 2 sources) ## Timeline ### 2026-08-10: Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion to settle AI copyright lawsuit Anthropic will pay $1.5 billion to settle a lawsuit involving the use of unauthorized books to train its Claude AI, following revelations of a secretive book-scanning and destruction operation. 5 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/anthropic-accused-of-destroying-millions-of-rare-books-for-ai-training ### 2026-08-09: Project Panama: Mass purchase of rare books for AI training Booksellers in Spain, the Netherlands, and elsewhere report suspicious mass orders of rare books linked to ‘Project Panama,’ an initiative allegedly used to digitize old texts for training artificial intelligie 2 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/project-panama-mass-purchase-of-rare-books-for-ai-training ### 2026-08-06: Anthropic reportedly destroyed millions of books for AI training via Project Panama Anthropic's 6 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/anthropics-project-panama-shreds-millions-of-books-for-ai-training ### 2026-07-19: Anthropic's Project Panama drives mass purchase of German books for AI training Anthropic's Project Panama is buying large volumes of German out‑of‑print books from antiquarians to scan and use for AI training, prompting legal and cultural concerns. 2 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/anthropics-project-panama-drives-mass-purchase-of-german-books-for-ai-training --- Cite as: Anthropic settles AI copyright lawsuit over Project Panama. CLSTR, https://clstr.news/situations/anthropic-book-scanning-controversy