Dear Member,
We promised you that we would keep you up to date on the latest developments in the Anthropic case in the US. This is a class action consisting of authors and publishers who claim that their copyright was infringed by Anthropic PBC, which used books from pirate websites Library Genesis (“LibGen”) and Pirate Library Mirror (“PiLiMi”) without permission to train their Large Language Models. Read the Author’s Guild ‘What Authors Need To Know’ for more details.
The settlement terms proposed by the Plaintiffs’ attorneys in the action being brought by U.S. authors against AI company, Anthropic PBC, were considered by the Judge, Hon. William Alsup, on 8 September.
The settlement was not approved, with the Judge seeking clarification from the parties on a number of points, including the works which will benefit from any settlement. The matter is due to return before the court on 25 September when the parties will be making further submissions in the hope of persuading the Judge that the settlement proposed is “fair, reasonable and adequate”.
The SoA is in touch with the Plaintiffs’ attorneys so that we can advise members of the implications of the settlement for UK authors if it is approved. One of the key issues will be whether the works of UK authors fall within the definition of works which will benefit from the settlement. As currently drafted, the definition provides that the settlement would apply to:-
“All beneficial or legal copyright owners of the exclusive right to reproduce copies of any book in the versions of LibGen or PiLiMi downloaded by Anthropic as contained on the Works List. “Book” refers to any work possessing an ISBN or ASIN which was registered with the United States Copyright Office within five years of the work’s first publication and which was registered with the United States Copyright Office before being downloaded by Anthropic, or within three months of publication. Excluded are the directors, officers and employees of Anthropic, personnel of federal agencies, and district court personnel. For avoidance of doubt, only works included on the Works List are in the Class.”
The Judge has expressed concerns about the parties’ proposed approach to the Works List and has invited the parties to submit a final Works List to the Court on Monday for consideration.
Given the definition of “Book”, the class of books which will be covered by the settlement is effectively closed and there is no benefit in authors now registering works with the U.S. Copyright Office for the purpose of sharing in this settlement; if a book qualifies it should appear on the Works List which is currently being finalised. However, if this settlement serves as a model for the settlement of other legal actions which are being brought against AI companies, registration of works with the U.S. Copyright Office may be beneficial if those books have been downloaded or torrented from an unlawful dataset.
The Works List is being compiled by reference to the raw text of the files that Anthropic downloaded, the accompanying metadata, data from the United States Copyright Office and the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and book metadata from Bowker, the key industry source of such information. There is, therefore, no need for our members to send any information to the Plaintiffs’ attorneys about their books.
The settlement terms anticipates that once the Works List is finalised, a searchable database will be made available so that authors can check whether any of their books have qualified. If a book is on the Works List, then authors will be invited to contact the Settlement Administrator to ensure that they have their current contact details so that (i) they can be invited to comment on the proposed terms or opt out; and (ii) they can participate in the settlement.
We will be providing regular updates to members in relation to future developments as they occur.
