Authors Push Back Against Publisher and Agent Claims on Anthropic Copyright Settlement
Authors included in Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement, approved in July, have received emails this week notifying them of claims by publishers and literary agents on $3,000 payments per pirated title. Terms call for 50-50 splits on in-print books and full payments when rights reverted. April Henry said HarperCollins claimed a 17-year reverted book. Victoria Strauss reported widespread identical errors, while Mary Rasenberger attributed issues to poor recordkeeping rather than intentional overreach by publishers.
Authors hoping to receive their share of Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement said they received surprising emails this week informing them that someone else was making a claim 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 but pirating that material was not. The deal received final approval in July, allowing payments of $3,000 for each of nearly 500,000 pirated titles to move forward. Under the settlement, money is split 50-50 between author and publisher if a book is still in print with a traditional publisher, while self-published authors or those whose rights reverted receive the entire payment. Writers have posted that publishers are claiming more than their fair share. Mystery and thriller author April Henry reported that HarperCollins claimed one of her books that reverted at least 17 years ago and was added as her employer. Victoria Strauss at Writers Beware described complaints of publishers seeking payment for works they no longer control and seeking 100 percent when entitled only to 50 percent. Strauss was reluctant to attribute the problems to malice rather than poor recordkeeping and noted that some publishers have asked Anthropic to fix the mistakes. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger told The New York Times she does not see this as a grab by the publishers but as the predictable result of bad recordkeeping and a confusing settlement process. Strauss acknowledged that any complaints are just a peek through a small crack in a massive wall, yet the unusually large number of reports over the last two days of authors reporting the exact same errors over and over suggests the issues are widespread and systemic rather than routine glitches. Literary agencies are also making claims even though agents are not rightsholders in the books they sell.