John Carlos BaezOct 28

Hey, Anthropic owes me $9000! They illegally used at least 3 of my books on LibGen to create Claude. Now they're paying a $1.5 billion settlement, at $3000 per book. See if *your* books are on the list:

https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/

If so, you have until March 23, 2026 to file a claim. The above website lets you file a claim, but this one explains everything more clearly:

https://authorsguild.org/advocacy/artificial-intelligence/what-authors-need-to-know-about-the-anthropic-settlement/#next-steps

Actually I exaggerated: the payment will be split between authors and publishers, but I have to make the claim - so the settlement is making me do some work my publisher should be doing for me. My coauthors and I will just get half, $4500. One of these books has 2 coauthors, one has 3, and one is a book I edited, with essays by lots of authors. So $1000 is a more realistic estimate of what I get. Oh well.

Bizarrely, my most popular book, Gauge Fields, Knots and Gravity, is not on the list. But I guess it's not surprising:

"The settlement agreement discloses that approximately 500,000 titles out of the 7 million copies of books that Anthropic reportedly downloaded from LibGen and PiLiMi meet the definition required to be part of the class."

Only books whose copyright is registered with the US Library of Congress meet that defiinition!

If you have a book on the list, you can opt out of the current settlement and join future lawsuits. But you have to take action to do that!!! For more information on that, see item 40 here:

https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/faq

Homepage | Bartz v Anthropic Settlement Site

Show threadMichael HartleOct 28
@johncarlosbaez Is this a compensation for them using your work illegally, barring them from further use and keeping you in control, or a compensation that "retroactively licenses" usage of your work in Anthropics current and future LLMs?
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezOct 28

@mhartle - I read this:

"Q: Does the settlement mean that now Anthropic can continue to use the pirated books to train AI?

A: No. The settlement does not give Anthropic—or any AI company—permission to use pirated books going forward. It only resolves Anthropic’s liability for past use of books. In fact, the agreement requires Anthropic to destroy all copies in its possession."

But I wonder if Anthropic will somehow remove the pirated training information from Claude, or bulld new LLMs based on this information. Perhaps only future lawsuits will clarify this.

Authors are free to opt out of the current settlement and join future lawsuits. But apparently opting out requires taking action on the website I listed, before March 23, 2026!!!

https://authorsguild.org/advocacy/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-settlement-faq/

Show threadMichael Hartle

@johncarlosbaez So this is a settlement mechanism requiring you to do stuff the publisher should do, share compensation with the publisher, would prevent you from joining future lawsuits and becoming binding by default on inaction?

Given how some people and companies got sued into oblivion on digital piracy for a lot less, this sounds like quite a bargain for Anthropic.

Oct 28 at 4:47pmWeb
Show threadCharlie StrossOct 28
@mhartle @johncarlosbaez It is *totally* a bargain for Anthropic. (But: AIUI the money for the pay-out is already in escrow. And I expect Anthropic and OpenAI to be in *serious* financial trouble within 6-18 months as they have no viable route to profitability and they're burning cash like it's rocket fuel and they're a moonshot. Which is why I'm taking the money on the table rather than joining another class action lawsuit: I have no confidence there'll be any more money later.)
Show threadRussell PhillipsOct 28

@cstross @mhartle @johncarlosbaez I hadn't realised that the money is already in escrow. That's excellent news - I've submitted claims for my two eligible books, but I'd half expected them to go bust before the payout and thus avoid paying.

I don't think it's enough, but I also think that it's the best we'll get 🙄