Authors dispute payment allocations in Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement
Writers are raising concerns over how payments from Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement are being distributed, with some publishers and literary agents claiming shares of funds that authors believe they should receive entirely or partially. The settlement was approved last year after a judge ruled training AI models on copyrighted material is legal under fair use but deemed pirating it unlawful. Under the agreement, nearly 500,000 book authors are to be paid $3,000 per pirated work—split with publishers if in-print or retained by them otherwise. However, some writers report that their former publishers are claiming rights on books where those rights had long since reverted. Authors like April Henry and others have taken to social media and blogs such as Writers Beware to highlight these issues, noting discrepancies ranging from incorrect claims of full payment entitlements when only half is due to unauthorized agent involvement. While some industry figures suggest the errors may stem from poor record-keeping rather than malice, concerns are growing over a potentially systemic issue in how payments are being allocated. The Authors Guild and individual authors have provided guidance on disputing these allocations, emphasizing that rights must revert before August 10, 2022—the settlement’s download date—for an author to claim full payment. The situation highlights the complexities of managing large-scale settlements involving intellectual property in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Topics: AI copyright law publishing industry settlement disputes