Anthropic's settlement pays authors $3,000 per pirated work.
Publishers and agents are claiming shares, sometimes wrongly.
Authors are pushing back on social media.
What happened
Some authors expecting payments from Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement received emails saying others are claiming their shares. Publishers and literary agencies are making claims on works, including those where rights reverted long ago.
Why it matters
Authors who self-published or had rights revert should receive the full $3,000 per pirated work, but publishers are sometimes claiming 100% when they're only entitled to 50%. This could delay or reduce payments to authors.
What to watch
Whether these claims are systematic errors or malice. The Authors Guild believes it's from poor recordkeeping, but the volume of similar complaints suggests a wider issue. Authors can dispute allocations, but 100% claims require rights reversion before August 10, 2022.
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The settlement stems from a class action lawsuit over Anthropic's use of copyrighted material in training AI models. A judge ruled that training on copyrighted material is legal under fair use, but pirating it was not. The final approval in July allowed payments to proceed, but now the distribution process is facing challenges as publishers and agents stake claims beyond their entitlement.
The complaints, documented by writers and the Authors Guild, point to possible systemic issues with recordkeeping in the publishing industry. While some errors may be honest mistakes, the recurrence of the same issues suggests a broader problem. The dispute process adds complexity, especially for books with reverted rights, where authors must prove reversion before the specified date.
The outcome hinges on whether publishers and agents correct their claims voluntarily or if authors must contest each one. The settlement's effectiveness in compensating authors could be undermined if the process becomes mired in disputes. Watching how Anthropic and publishers respond to the backlash will indicate whether this is a temporary glitch or a deeper flaw in the payout system.
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