Four of Canada's biggest news organisations, Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press, are suing Anthropic in an Ontario court. They allege it infringed their copyright by using their journalism to develop its Claude model. The statement of claim was filed on 6 October 2026 and first reported by Cartt.ca.
The claim says Anthropic deliberately scrapes large volumes of text from the open web and from the plaintiffs' sites, breached those sites' terms of service, and got round technical measures meant to stop copying. It also pleads unjust enrichment, saying Anthropic raised substantial capital with no valid licence.
Illustration of the Claude AI model that the publishers say was built on their content
Image: MobileSyrup
The publishers describe themselves as producing a significant share of Canadian journalism for millions of readers. They say Anthropic took the material without authorisation or consent and has done nothing to rein in the practice despite other lawsuits and public criticism. Anthropic had not answered a request for comment, and none of the allegations has been tested in court.
About Anthropic
Anthropic has faced copyright suits before. In October 2023 music publishers including Concord, Universal and ABKCO sued over Claude reproducing song lyrics, seeking up to $150,000 per work. Reddit sued in June 2025 for training on its users' data in breach of its user agreement.
Authors filed a class action in August 2024. In June 2025 a US court held that training on lawfully held copies was fair use but ordered a trial over pirated books, and in September 2025 Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion. A US judge approved that settlement in July 2026, described as the largest known US copyright settlement.
2021
Founded
8
Models indexed
Models on AIPopDB
The same group, joined by CBC/Radio-Canada, sued OpenAI in Ontario in 2024, and that case remains unresolved. No hearing date has been reported.
Sources · 3