Who Has Time For Webinars? (Anthropic-related)

Well, I make time... sometimes, because I am officious that way.

Here's a breakdown of what I inferred from the recent hour-long Authors Guild webinar with Rachel Geman and Michael Adamson, class counsel for the settlement.

Important contact information:

rgeman@lchb.com

madamson@susbmangodfry.com

anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

Settlement details were finalized in September 2025, so no new works or authors will have been added since September. However, if you have not checked the anthropic settlement site since September, it might be worth another look to see if an additional work of yours was added.

The deadline for adding or revising claims is 30th March 2026.

If you need to revise a claim, use any of the receipt numbers (you may have been given several, even if for only one work) to quickly identify your claim.

Wrinkles:

If your publisher submits a claim, and you don't do so, in theory, the publisher ought to pay you a half share, but... how honest is your publisher? It is much better for you if you both submit a claim.

If you try to submit a claim, and the website bot tells you that a claim has already been submitted, it might be that your publisher, or co-author if you have one, has submitted a claim. You can contact Rachel or Michael. It is their pleasure, honor, privilege (and their job) to help you.

If you have not yet made a claim, it is best to make a claim (and not rely on a publisher, agent, or co-author to do so, and to give you your fair share). If you do nothing, you might get nothing.

If you have made a claim, keep a copy of your receipt.

The Atlantic site is not as reliable as the Anthropic site. For instance, some books may be on the former but not on the latter because the file, when opened, was unreadable. If an e-book file is illegible or corrupted, it cannot have been used by Anthropic (or any pirate reader).  Or, it might have been added after the date of the class action, which is Aug 5th, 2025.

Background:

The judge has not ruled that it is anything other than fair use for an AI company to use published works to train their whatevers. However, it is not "fair use" to use pirated works for that purpose, or any purpose.

Usually, a jury would decide on a lawsuit, but if there is a settlement, there will be no jury and no legal precedent set.

This case is only about pirated works, and the pirated works have to have been copyrighted before they were pirated (in 2025 or before). Some authors copyright their works before the works are published. Other authors rely on their publisher to copyright the works, and not all publishers did that in the past, regardless of the wording of their contracts with the authors. Other authors may have fallen through the copyright cracks through no fault of their own.

Money may start to be paid out in late 2026 or 2027, but payments could be delayed or reduced if there is an appeal by the settling parties.

Other concerns:

Some books are out of print, or the publisher is out of business. Perhaps you have a rights reversion letter.

If in doubt (or if a publisher who no longer has rights has put in a claim anyway) discuss this with class counsel.... see email addresses for Rachel and Michael above.

Some rights reversion contracts leave the author as the sole owner, other rights reversion contracts give the publisher rights that survive in the case of copyright infringement settlements, so, it is still worth checking your reversion letters.

In some cases, your publisher might assert a split that is less in your favor than 50/50. In some cases, you may never have given/sold/licensed your publisher any e-rights at all, in which case, you should definitely talk to class counsel.

If you are a prolific author, class counsel can help with your bulk claims. 

As with all lawsuit settlements, attorneys get paid first out of the pot, which is why you should not be shy about contacting the settlement lawyers. What is left in the pot, after lawyers' share, will be shared among the class members.

If your work was "work for hire", you have no claim.

Also...

There are other lawsuits. Look around for suits against Apple or Open AI. You might have equal or better luck with those.

There are also lawyers who are author chasing. Nice to be the literary equivalent of an ambulance, isn't it? This probably is only a dilemma for prolific bestsellers, but it is fun to ponder. Apparently those lawyers are importuning business and asking the author-whales to opt out of class actions and to go with them instead.

Finally...

If you take the money, this does not in any way mean that you agree with the judge or lose your rights to later participate in any other suit on the matter of copyright infringement or permissionless use of your works to train AI. You are only bound (and in a class action, you are bound by the terms whether you join in or not.... unless you opt out) with regard to Anthropic.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry