What authors need to know about the Anthropic settlement
a PSA for Authors
If you’re an author, you’ve probably heard about the recent Anthropic settlement announcement. I see it as a positive signal that AI companies can be held to account. Up until now, it felt a bit like the industry has been immune to meaningful regulation, especially where it comes to the volume and type of content they feed to their LLMs. It’s a bit like the mountaintop removal mining process—the companies see that there’s something valuable in the content authors have created, but to get at it they risk destroying the benefit that future generations could get from the literary landscape.
A couple of weeks ago at Hopkins Press, we put some info on our website for our own authors. If you’re a Hopkins author you may have already seen this, but even if you’re not, it’s worth a look. If your book was included in the long list that Anthropic took without permission, you may be entitled to a piece of the settlement. I’m not a lawyer, don’t play one on TV, so for obvious reasons I’m sharing the official info without my own analysis, this is not legal advice, and you should look into this yourself to make sure you understand if and how it impacts you.
If you’re an author and you have people around you who are interested in becoming authors in the future—maybe they’ve asked you about it, or maybe they’re the kind of person who everyone thinks should write a book but they’ve always shied away from the suggestion. I’m giving a free, small-group introduction to academic book publishing, and have just a few seats left—I invite you to share the link with anyone who you think would benefit.
Here is the official statement that was prepared for Johns Hopkins University Press authors.
Important Information for Johns Hopkins University Press Authors: Bartz v. Anthropic Copyright Settlement*
“This Settlement resolves a class action lawsuit brought against Anthropic over the company’s use of allegedly pirated books to train its AI model. The plaintiffs claim that Anthropic infringed protected copyrights by downloading books from Library Genesis (LibGen) and Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi). Anthropic denies these claims. The Court didn’t decide who was right. Instead, both sides agreed to settle to avoid more litigation.”
—from the Anthropic Copyright Settlement website
The Bartz v. Anthropic Court has asked publishers to assist in notifying authors and other rightsholders about the ongoing settlement and claims process. Because both authors and publishers are potential claimants, each must follow the claims process independently to receive their portion of the payment if their book is included in this settlement (see below). As part of this effort to notify authors, Johns Hopkins University Press is providing the Settlement Administrator (SA) with contact information for authors of JHUP books that may be included in the settlement.
The SA will only use this information to contact authors about the settlement and potential payments. Your information will remain confidential and will not be shared or used for any other purpose. You may also confirm or update your contact information directly with the SA by emailing info@AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com with the subject line “Author confirming contact information.” Doing so ensures you receive official notice of the settlement and claims process.
Please note that providing contact information to the Settlement Administrator does not mean you’ve submitted a claim for payment—filing a claim is a separate step.
How to Check if Your Books Are Included
You can visit www.AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com to search the database of works included in the settlement. Books included in the settlement are those that:
were downloaded by Anthropic from LibGen (June–July 2021) or Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi) (August 2022),
were timely registered with the U.S. Copyright Office (within five years of publication and before Anthropic’s download, or within three months of publication), and
have an ISBN or ASIN.
What to Do if Your Book Is Included
If your book is included in this settlement, you must submit a claim form directly with the Settlement Administrator (SA) to ensure that you receive your portion of the payment.
Authors must file as “beneficial” owners of the books, and Publishers must file as “legal” owners. If the book has multiple authors, each author should submit a claim. To clarify, Johns Hopkins University Press, as your publisher, will not be sent the full amount of the settlement in order to distribute payments to authors.
We encourage you to review the FAQs prepared by Class Counsel (FAQ page link).
Key Dates
November 2025: Direct notices to authors will be sent by the Settlement Administrator (SA) in late November 2025.
December 2025: If you do not receive a notice by early December 2025 but believe your work should be included, please contact the SA via the settlement website.
March 2026: The deadline to file a claim is March 23, 2026.
Claims may be submitted at any time before this date.
All timely claims will be processed together, regardless of when they are submitted.
The official notice you receive from the SA will include unique identifiers for your book(s), which may simplify the claims process.
Questions?
For comprehensive information about eligibility, deadlines, and the claims process, please visit www.AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com or contact the Settlement Administrator directly through the channels listed on that site.
*We are providing you with this information to ensure that you are aware of this settlement and know where to go to get more details for determining if your book is included and filing a claim. We are not and cannot provide you with legal advice.
Rlly appreciate you breaking down the claims process so clearly. The mountaintop removal mining analogy hits hard. Authors definitly need to check that database and file before March 2026 if their work is included. The fact that both authors and publishers have to file seperately is an important detail that could easily be missed.
Some readers pointed out to me that the link provided goes to a "documents" page, and that the database is not accessible to search. I just spent some time trying to find a functional path to the database, and I could not. Various links have been provided before now (such as https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup ) but they all reroute to the documents page at this point. If you have a book that might be on the list, it could be worth emailing info@AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com to inquire.