Authors Alarmed as Publishers and Agents Claim Anthropic Funds

Several authors expecting to secure their portion of Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement received unexpected emails this week, notifying them that third parties are making claims on their payments.

Last year, Anthropic reached a settlement in a copyright class action lawsuit after a judge concluded that utilizing copyrighted materials to train AI models falls under the fair use doctrine, while the unauthorized distribution of such materials does not. The settlement was officially approved in July, paving the way for the disbursement of payments.

According to the settlement terms, authors of approximately 500,000 titles are entitled to receive $3,000 for each work that was pirated. If the book remains in print with a traditional publisher, the payment will be divided equally between the author and the publisher. In cases of self-published works, or if a publisher has reverted rights by allowing the book to go out of print, the author is entitled to the full payment.

However, numerous writers have taken to social media to express concerns that publishers are claiming a larger share of some payments than they are entitled to. For instance, mystery and thriller author April Henry questioned, “What is HarperCollins doing? They claimed one of my books on the Anthropic Settlement that reverted back at least 17 years ago, and on the same day, I received a credit alert indicating they had been added as my employer! (which they never were).”

On the popular blog Writers Beware, Victoria Strauss reported receiving numerous complaints from authors that generally fall into two main categories: one where publishers are seeking payment for works they no longer have a legitimate claim to (due to rights reversion), and another where publishers are requesting the full 100% payment when they are only entitled to 50%.

In response to these issues, Strauss expressed her hesitation to assume malice, suggesting that the situation could be attributed to poor recordkeeping. She noted that some publishers have acknowledged these errors and are in the process of rectifying them with Anthropic.

Similarly, Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger stated to The New York Times that she does not perceive this as a “grab by the publishers” nor does she believe that publishers are intentionally trying to disadvantage any author. Rather, she contended that this outcome reflects poor recordkeeping and an inherently confusing settlement process.

Strauss also mentioned that the complaints she has received offer merely a glimpse into a much larger issue. “The unusually high volume of reports I’ve received in the past two days, coupled with authors reporting identical errors repeatedly, suggests that these are not just typical glitches you might expect from such a large operation, but indicative of something more widespread and systemic,” she elaborated.

Moreover, publishers are not the only entities pursuing a share of the settlement payments. Strauss highlighted that she has received reports indicating that several literary agencies are also making claims, which she found unexpected since “agents do not hold rights to the books they sell.”

Author Courtney Milan (the pen name of former law clerk and law professor Heidi Bond) was more direct in a post on Bluesky, stating, “It seems some agents are attempting to claim percentages from the Anthropic settlement, and I do not think they should do this at all. What on earth, stop that!”

Milan and the Authors Guild have also provided additional information on how authors can challenge their payment distributions. One complex aspect involves determining when the rights to a specific book reverted. For authors to claim 100%, the rights must have reverted prior to August 10, 2022, which is the designated “download date” in the settlement.