Six authors file individual copyright suits against Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI and Perplexity

What happened

Six authors, including two-time Pulitzer winner John Carreyrou (*Bad Blood*), filed individual copyright infringement lawsuits in the Northern District of California against Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity. The suits were reported October 15-16, 2026, with filings in the week of October 12.

The claims

• The authors allege their books were copied from pirate libraries including LibGen, Z-Library, and OceanofPDF to train large language models, without permission, licensing, or compensation.
• They opted out of the proposed $1.5B *Bartz v. Anthropic* settlement, arguing $3,000 per work amounts to 2% of the statutory maximum.
• They seek up to $150,000 per work per defendant — potentially $900,000 per work across all six defendants.
• The suits were filed by Stris & Maher LLP and Freedman Normand Friedland LLP on a 35% contingency basis, with the firms advancing litigation costs.

Responses

• xAI responded with 'Legacy Media Lies'; Perplexity's Jesse Dwyer denied that Perplexity indexes books.

Status

These are the plaintiffs' allegations in new filings, not court findings. No rulings on these claims have been reported.