Authors push back as publishers and agents make claims on Anthropic settlement
News Source
β’Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:47:37 +0000
π° What Happened
Authors expecting money from Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement received surprise emails this week. The emails said someone else was claiming their payments. Anthropic had settled a class action suit over using authors' books to train its AI.
The deal pays authors $3,000 for each pirated work, with the money split with publishers for in-print books. But writers say publishers are taking more than their fair share. Some publishers claimed old works and even added themselves as authors' employers. Writers are pushing back on social media.
π The Backstory
Anthropic used copyrighted books to train its AI models. A judge ruled that training on such material can be fair use, but pirating it is not. The deal won final approval in July, letting the payments begin.
The settlement covers nearly 500,000 titles. Now a new fight is breaking out over who actually gets the money, as publishers and agents line up to make their claims.
π― Why It Matters
$3,000 can decide whether an author gets paid fairly for their work. When publishers grab more than their share, writers lose money and trust, showing how AI deals can still hurt the people who wrote the books.
Authors expecting money from Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement received surprise emails this week. The emails said someone else was claiming their payments. Anthropic had settled a class action suit over using authors' books to train its AI.
The deal pays authors $3,000 for each pirated work, with the money split with publishers for in-print books. But writers say publishers are taking more than their fair share. Some publishers claimed old works and even added themselves as authors' employers. Writers are pushing back on social media.
Anthropic used copyrighted books to train its AI models. A judge ruled that training on such material can be fair use, but pirating it is not. The deal won final approval in July, letting the payments begin.
The settlement covers nearly 500,000 titles. Now a new fight is breaking out over who actually gets the money, as publishers and agents line up to make their claims.
$3,000 can decide whether an author gets paid fairly for their work. When publishers grab more than their share, writers lose money and trust, showing how AI deals can still hurt the people who wrote the books.