KoreaAnthropic illegally downloaded 21 Korean ebooks, including Han Kang's; Korean bookstores fielded bulk-buy requests

Anthropic, the U.S. company behind Claude, illegally downloaded 21 ebooks by 20 Korean authors, including Nobel laureate Han Kang, Hwang Sok-yong, Kim Ae-ran and Kim Young-ha.

Newsis reported on Oct. 18 that the Literature Translation Institute of Korea identified the downloads and notified the authors. The titles include Han Kang's Human Acts, The Vegetarian and The White Book. The institute said it would actively support legal action if needed so the authors receive fair compensation.

Anthropic also received print books through Korean distributor Woongjin Booxen, which said it signed a contract in 2024, supplied books in 2025 and treated it as an ordinary sale. Kyobo Book Centre said companies in the U.S. and U.K. emailed asking to buy 100,000 titles, but it declined after getting unclear answers about the final buyer. Yes24 and Aladin received similar offers.

In the U.S., the Bartz v. Anthropic class action by authors and publishers ended with $1.5 billion in compensation.