Judge puts Anthropic's $1.5 billion book piracy settlement on hold

"Anthropic's $1.5 billion book piracy settlement has been put on pause after the federal judge overseeing the class action case raised concerns about the terms of the agreement. During a hearing this week, Judge William Alsup rejected the settlement over concerns that class action lawyers will create a deal behind closed doors that they will force "down the throats of authors," according to reports from Bloomberg Law and the Associated Press."

"In addition to his concerns over authors being strong-armed into signing a deal, Alsup says he needs to review more information about the claims process outlined in the settlement. "I have an uneasy feeling about hangers on with all this money on the table," Alsup said, as reported by Bloomberg Law. Under the settlement, authors and publishers would receive about $3,000 for covered works."

"As noted by AP, an attorney for the authors said there are around 465,000 books that would be covered by the settlement, but Judge Alsup asked for a solid number to ensure Anthropic doesn't get hit with other lawsuits "coming out of the woodwork." He added that class members will need to be given "very good notice" to make sure they're aware of the case."

A federal judge paused Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement with US authors alleging the company trained models on copyrighted books. Judge William Alsup rejected the proposed deal, expressing concern that class-action lawyers might craft an agreement behind closed doors and compel authors to accept it, and requesting more details on the claims process. Alsup previously found training on purchased books can be fair use but kept liability open for models trained on illegally downloaded works. The settlement proposed roughly $3,000 per covered work with about 465,000 books reportedly eligible, and the judge demanded clearer notice procedures and firm counts to avoid additional litigation. The Association of American Publishers criticized the judge's understanding of the industry.

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