On Monday, a judge approved a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors, ending the largest copyright class-action ever certified and granting the largest copyright settlement ever reached.
Back in May, some authors fought to block the settlement, which was proposed after the court ruled that Anthropic training AI on books was fair use; however, its piracy of works was likely not.
Authors opposing the settlement argued that lawyers’ fees were too high and authors’ payouts were too low. Hoping to avoid accepting the estimated $3,000-per-work payout and file separate lawsuits to seek higher damages, a handful of authors tried to opt out past the deadline.
In her order, US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín overruled objections to the settlement as lacking merit. She emphasized that about 95 percent of the class received notifications and approximately 91 percent of authors and publishers impacted have already filed claims. Only 350 class members opted out, while another 54 sought to object or filed late opt-out requests, Martínez-Olguín said.
The high rate of participation suggested that most authors received timely notice of the distribution plan, agreed it was “fair,” and supported the settlement, Martínez-Olguín wrote. She also noted that the $3,000-per-work payouts were “four times the minimum statutory damages.”
Lawyers fees, plaintiffs awards cut #
Although Martínez-Olguín approved the total settlement amount, she reduced both lawyers’ fees and the requested awards for the three authors who represented the class in the litigation.
Lawyers originally asked for 20 percent of the settlement in fees, requesting $300 million. Ahead of Martínez-Olguín’s ruling, that percentage was reduced to 12.5, with the total fees requested amounting to approximately $187 million.
The judge ruled that 12.5 percent was too high, however, cutting fees down to less than 7 percent of the settlement fund, which is about $101 million.