Authors Report Disputed Claims Over Payments in Anthropic’s $1.5B Copyright Settlement
aiinsider ·
Authors expecting compensation from Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement are reporting that publishers and literary agents are also claiming portions of their payments. The settlement, finalized in July, followed a court ruling that training AI on copyrighted works is legal but pirating them is not, and it entitles authors of nearly 500,000 titles to $3,000 per pirated work, with payments split when books remain in print and paid fully to authors when rights reverted. Writers such as April Henry describe publishers claiming rights to books whose rights reverted years earlier, while Victoria Strauss has received numerous complaints about both improper full-rights claims and incorrect 100% payment requests. Strauss believes the repeated, identical errors suggest a systemic problem rather than isolated mistakes, although some publishers have already asked Anthropic to correct them. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger doubts any intentional shortchanging and instead blames poor recordkeeping and a confusing settlement process. Author Courtney Milan separately criticized literary agencies for attempting to claim funds, noting agents hold no rights to the underlying works. Dispute guidance has been shared by Milan and the Authors Guild.
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