Media News Daily: Top Stories for 08/31/2025

Anthropic Settles Copyright Lawsuit With Authors Over Pirated Book Use

Anthropic has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by authors who alleged the AI company trained its language models on copyrighted books, including pirated copies. The case, filed last August by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, claimed Anthropic’s model training practices constituted “largescale copyright theft.” While a court had ruled that using legally purchased books was “transformative” and fair use, it denied Anthropic’s fair use defense for books downloaded from piracy sites. That ruling exposed the company to potential billions in damages. The parties reached a settlement before appellate courts could rule on further motions. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. Read More (MediaPost Rating)

FTC Urges Court to Lift Block on Media Matters Probe

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to reinstate its investigation into watchdog group Media Matters over what it describes as “potentially unlawful advertiser boycotts.” A D.C. judge had previously blocked the FTC from enforcing a broad data demand, finding that the investigation appeared retaliatory following Media Matters’ 2023 exposé on ads appearing next to extremist content on X (formerly Twitter). The FTC now argues the probe is part of a wider antitrust investigation into ad industry collusion, not a politically motivated act. The appellate court has given Media Matters until September 2 to respond. Read More (MediaPost Rating)

FTC Chair Warns Google Over Alleged GOP Email Suppression in Gmail

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has warned Google about potential partisan bias in Gmail’s spam filtering system after GOP lawmakers alleged that Republican campaign emails are disproportionately flagged as spam. While the FTC is not currently launching an investigation, Ferguson notified Google CEO Sundar Pichai that such practices could constitute unfair or deceptive acts under the FTC Act. Google maintains that its spam filtering relies on objective factors and is not politically biased. Past legal and regulatory reviews have cleared Gmail of intentional political bias. Read More (Axios Rating)