Authors and publishers are disputing how to divide more than $1.5 billion that AI company Anthropic will pay in the largest copyright settlement in US history, according to The New York Times.
Anthropic was accused of obtaining and storing millions of unlicensed books while creating its AI chatbot, Claude. The deal allows writers to earn up to $3,000 for each book the business improperly collected. The arrangement, which was authorized by a US judge in July, covers more than 482,000 books.
The allocation of the settlement has sparked disagreements between certain writers and publishers. In several situations, both parties claimed copyright to the same literature.
The Authors Guild’s Chief Executive, Mary Rasenberger, believes that publishers’ poor record-keeping may be contributing to the conflicts. She stated that publishers do not usually remove works from their catalogs when the author’s rights are reversed.
“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. And so you know, they should be taking it off their catalogue,” she told the publication.
“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.
The Authors Guild said authors must split proceeds with publishers to which they had granted book rights, as well as with co-authors.
“It’s the textbooks where there are a lot of unhappy authors right now,” Rasenberger said, adding that authors of such works are receiving only 10% to 15% of the total payment.
Author April Henry informed the magazine that HarperCollins claimed partial ownership of her debut novel, “Circles of Confusion,” which was released in 1999. Henry stated that the book’s rights reverted to her in 2007.
Henry noted that the settlement covers 22 of her novels and that she expects to collect $20,000 or more after publishers and co-authors have received their portions.
Henry noted that the settlement covers 22 of her novels and that she expects to collect $20,000 or more after publishers and co-authors have received their portions.
She also expressed worry about the delays in obtaining the money. Authors were reportedly assured that payments would start in August, but they may now have to wait until later this year.
Another author, Amy Lupold Bair, stated that her publisher sought to change the typical 50-50 split and give her only 10% of the payout.
The company’s spokesman stated, “We are pleased that more than 91% 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 dispute began in 2024, when a group of writers sued Anthropic, claiming that the corporation exploited their writings without permission and gathered millions of illegal books to train its artificial intelligence systems.
The judge also determined that Anthropic’s use of lawfully obtained literature to train its AI constituted “fair use.” However, the judge determined that the writers’ use of stolen publications provided grounds for their complaint.
