Authors Raise Concerns Over Claims on Anthropic Settlement Payments

Some authors expecting to receive payments from Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement reported receiving emails indicating that others were making claims on their payments. Anthropic settled a copyright class action suit last year after a judge ruled that training AI models on copyrighted material is legal under fair use doctrine, while pirating that material is not. The settlement received final approval in July, allowing payments to proceed. Under the settlement terms, authors of nearly 500,000 titles will receive $3,000 for each pirated work. If the book is still in print with a traditional publisher, the payment will be split 50-50 between the author and publisher. If the book was self-published or if the publisher reverted the rights by allowing the book to go out of print, the author is entitled to the full payment. Authors have taken to social media to express concerns that publishers are claiming more than their fair share of some payments. For instance, author April Henry questioned HarperCollins' claim on one of her books that reverted back 17 years ago. Victoria Strauss of the blog Writers Beware noted that she has received complaints from authors regarding publishers seeking payments for works they no longer have a legitimate claim on and others seeking full payments when only entitled to half. Strauss suggested that these issues may stem from poor recordkeeping rather than malice. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger stated that she does not view this as a publisher grab but rather a result of confusing settlement processes. Strauss also mentioned that complaints have surfaced regarding literary agencies making claims on the payments, which is unexpected since agents are not considered rightsholders. Author Courtney Milan criticized agents attempting to claim percentages from the settlement. The Authors Guild provided details on how authors can dispute payment allocations, noting the importance of the rights reversion date for claims. The rights to a specific book must have reverted before August 10, 2022, to make a 100% claim on it.