Authors push back as publishers and agents claim shares of Anthropic settlement

Authors are objecting to how publishers and literary agents are dividing proceeds from the Anthropic copyright settlement, according to TechCrunch. The report states that authors believe publishers are attempting to claim a share of settlement payments larger than their contracts warrant.

The settlement stems from litigation over Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books to train its AI models. Per the reporting, authors say the dispute centers on how payments tied to that settlement should be divided among the parties who hold stakes in the affected works, including publishers, agents, and the authors themselves.

TechCrunch’s account frames the disagreement as a test of long-standing publishing contracts, which were written before AI training claims existed as a category of compensable use. Authors quoted or referenced in the reporting argue that the money is meant to compensate them for the unauthorized use of their creative labor, not to be absorbed disproportionately by intermediaries in the traditional publishing chain.

The report does not specify final allocation figures or indicate whether the dispute has been brought before a court or mediator. It characterizes the matter as an emerging pushback, with authors making their objections known as settlement funds move toward distribution.

The underlying case is part of a broader wave of litigation over AI companies’ use of copyrighted material in training data, with the outcome of this and similar settlements expected to inform how compensation is handled in future disputes of this kind.