Judge Rejects Anthropic Settlement with Book Authors

Northern District of California Judge William Alsup has rejected a blockbuster $1.5 billion settlement that Anthropic reached with book authors whose content it had stolen to train its AI models. However, the deal can still be approved if Anthropic’s lawyers can address his concerns. Otherwise, he will let the case go to trial.

The issue? Alsup is worried that the lawyers representing the authors in the class action lawsuit struck a deal behind closed doors that will be shoved “down the throats of authors” without their consent. He said he was “misled” by the lawyers and that he needs additional information about how the claim process will work.

“This is nowhere close to complete,” Judge Alsup said during a hearing Monday. “I have an uneasy feeling about hangers on with all this money on the table.”

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, Judge Alsup wrote in an order that he was “disappointed that counsel have left important questions to be answered in the future,” most of which are tied to the list of stolen book content, the class list (i.e. the authors included in the class action), and the claims form, and “the processes for notification (for opt-out, so-called re-inclusion, and claims, whether a given choice is exercised by one, some, or all co-claimants), allocation, and dispute resolution.”

One of the lawyers representing the authors said that the attention given to this case would help ensure that the money was distributed fairly.

Judge Alsup has scheduled another hearing on September 25, and if his concerns aren’t addressed at that time, he’s ready to let the case go to trial. If Anthropic is found guilty in that trial, it will be liable for up to $150,000 per infringed work, a sum that would exceed $10.5 trillion, bankrupting the company. So one can assume that its lawyers will do what they can to avoid that outcome.