Authors and publishers are currently in disagreement regarding the distribution of a $1.5 billion copyright settlement from Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company. This conflict highlights ongoing tensions in the industry over how AI technologies impact copyright and intellectual property rights.
The company was accused of downloading and storing millions of pirated books while developing its AI chatbot Claude. A US judge approved the settlement in July. But the payment process has led to a clash between some authors and their publishers. “My big fear when this was all set up is that not all publishers keep great records of what books they’ve reverted rights to. Rasenberger added she did not believe publishers were deliberately trying to take money from writers. “I don’t see this as a grab by the publishers. I don’t think they’re specifically trying to screw any author over,” she added. She also complained about the delay in receiving the money.
Anthropic will pay more than $1.5 billion under the largest copyright settlement in US history. Authors will receive up to $3,000 for each book that Anthropic illegally obtained, as per the settlement. More than 482,000 books are covered by the agreement. She said the rights to the book had returned to her in 2007. Henry said 22 of her books are included in the settlement. She is expected to receive around $20,000 or more after publishers and co-authors receive their shares. Another author, Amy Lupold Bair, also said that her publisher was trying to change the usual 50/50 split and wanted her to receive only 10% of the payment. The case began in 2024 when a group of authors sued Anthropic.
There have been cases where both sides have claimed rights to the same books, according to The NY Times . Mary Rasenberger, chief executive of the Authors Guild, said one reason for the disputes could be poor record-keeping by publishers. She said publishers do not always remove books from their catalogues after the rights are returned to the authors. And so you know, they should be taking it off their catalog,” she told the outlet. “But they must split the proceeds with publishers they granted book rights to and with co-authors,” said Authors Guild, a trade group. “It’s the textbooks where there are a lot of unhappy authors right now,” Rasenberger said, as they receive only 10% to 15% of the total payment. Author April Henry said that HarperCollins claimed partial ownership of her first book, “Circles of Confusion”, which was published in 1999. Authors were initially told that payments could begin in August, but they may now have to wait until later this year. “We are pleased that more than 91 percent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close,” the company’s spokesperson said. They said the company had used their books without permission and collected millions of pirated books to train its AI systems. The judge had also ruled that Anthropic’s use of books it had legally obtained to train its AI was “fair use”. However, the judge said using pirated books gave the authors grounds for their lawsuit.
