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 threadploumOct 28
@johncarlosbaez : but by accepting the money, you validate their use of your book, right?
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezOct 28

@ploum - 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."

wonder whether Anthropic will somehow remove the pirated training information from Claude, or whether it will build 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 threadKevin Karhan Oct 29

@johncarlosbaez @ploum so authors who can't take the settlement will get their content pulled from their dataset and the models destroyed?

  • Cuz to me it seems that it's an exception from the norm.

Also it won't help people outsitde the #USA at all...

https://infosec.space/@kkarhan/115457098510779725

Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] so again like all #ClassAction|s it just is a way for offenders to simply *#pay and continue* and not *pay damages and undo the violation(s)* as would be the norm in amy decent juristiction… - Bonus points for the #US-only bs, since in many juristictions (i.e. #Germany) there is no *"Copyright Office"* as all works are *automatically copyrighted* at time of authoring *unless explicitly licensed permissively otherwise*! This is just like the *"#OtherOSsettlement"* with the #PS3: - Another case where it's clear that rich #corporations can do anything - and get away with it *if they can just throw #money after it*. Cuz IMHO not only should #Anthropic be firced to pay the settlement to *EVERYONE affected* but also be forced to pull the offending model(s) and access to those from the public & market!

Infosec.Space
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez

@kkarhan @ploum

"so authors who can't take the settlement will get their content pulled from their dataset and the models destroyed?"

No. Authors who have a book on this list

https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/

who fill out a form by January 7, 2026 saying they "opt out" of the settlement will continue to have the right to sue Anthropic regarding their use of that book.

"Also it won't help people outside the #USA at all..."

You don't have to be in the USA for any of this to apply. But outside the US you can sue Anthropic in your own country.

Homepage | Bartz v Anthropic Settlement Site

Oct 29 at 12:14pmWeb
Show threadKevin Karhan Oct 29

@johncarlosbaez @ploum Interestingly, there's no full list available but only a search box.

  • Obviously said settlement only covers U.S. citizens and U.S. registered copyrighted material...

At least it seems none of the Authors I know are in that list...

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