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.
Anthropic agreed to pay the landmark settlement last week, putting to rest a class action lawsuit from US authors that accused the AI company of training its models on hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books. Judge Alsup let the class action lawsuit move forward after ruling that Anthropic training its AI models on purchased books counts as fair use, but that it could be liable for training on illegally downloaded work.
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.
Maria Pallante, CEO of the Association of American Publishers, an industry group backing the authors’ lawsuit, told AP that Alsup “demonstrated a lack of understanding of how the publishing industry works.” Pallante said that “class actions are supposed to resolve cases, not create new disputes, and certainly not between the class members who were harmed in the first place.” The authors’ attorney, Justin Nelson, said in a statement to Bloomberg Law that the lawyers “care deeply that every single proper claim gets compensation.”
Judge Alsup will revisit the settlement during another hearing on September 25th. “We’ll see if I can hold my nose and approve it,” Alsup said, according to the AP.