After a judge ruled that Anthropic must pay damages in the class-action lawsuit brought by authors (Bartz v. Anthropic), Anthropic has decided to settle out of court. Everyone involved has so far declined to comment, and terms have yet to be disclosed. Learn more. Just keep in mind it’s not a done deal yet; a trial could still happen if parties don’t agree on terms.
Whatever details come to light about the settlement, I believe writers may become frustrated with the outcome as insufficiently punitive. For extensive background on the case, see these informative and free articles from the Authors Guild:
- Learn about the class action aspect of the lawsuit.
- Learn about the ruling that led to Anthropic being held liable for potentially billions (or more) in damages due to AI model training on pirated content. Note that AI training itself was ruled fair use when books were legitimately acquired.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
