The court granted preliminary approval of the settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic on September 25, 2025, and you can now search the official Works List to confirm whether your books are part of the class and file your Claim Form to receive compensation.

Additional resources:

• Our main update on the settlement has more background on the case and detailed information about claim forms.
• We have a step-by-step guide to filing a claim online.
• Join us for a webinar on Thursday, October 16, as co-lead class counsel Rachel Geman of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger discuss what authors should know about their rights and how to prepare and submit claim forms.

How to Search for Your Works and File a Claim

Step 1: Visit the Settlement Website

The settlement website—www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com—is the hub for all information about the case. It contains:

• A searchable Works List of all books included in the class
• The long-form notice explaining the settlement and your options
• The Claim Form (online, with instructions for submitting by mail, fax, or email)
• Key deadlines and official court filings

Step 2: Search the Works List

Use the search tool to check whether your books are included. If your book is on the Works List, it is covered by the settlement, and you may file a claim for it.

Step 3: File Your Claim Form

To receive payment, you should submit a Claim Form. This can be done online at the site listed above, or by mail after you receive a notice in the mail (which should occur on or around November 24, 2025). We recommend taking your time in filing a claim so that you do it correctly; the Guild will have step by step directions for the online form that we will link to here. The deadline is March 23, 2026.

In the claim form, you will:

1. Confirm which books you are claiming
2. List other rightsholders (such as your publisher or co-authors) or check that you are the sole rightsowner because you self-published or granted a publisher only a non-exclusive license, had your rights reverted, or your grant to your publisher was otherwise terminated. There is a separate check box for those who are sole owners.
3. Choose between the 50/50 default split with your publisher, if you are published with a trade or university press;  or you can provide an alternative option. Books published by educational publisher do not have a default option, so you will need to provide a good-faith split. (If you choose the non-default option, you will be asked to provide documentation which includes your contract, but you can continue without uploading anything.)
4. Select your payment method (ACH, Zelle, or check)

The Claim Form can be submitted online (recommended), or by mail, fax, or email. Notices will also be sent out with a paper claim form, but you don’t need to wait for them and can file online. A single form can cover multiple titles. The final deadline is March 23, 2026.

On the first page, the form will ask for a unique ID. That will be provided in the written notice. If you do not have it yet, Simply click on “I don’t have a Unique ID.”

If you are an Authors Guild member and need our help in filing the claim, please send in a legal help request. If you are not currently a member, and would like our assistance, you can learn about membership and join here.

Step 4: Watch for Your Official Notice

Even though the Works List is already live, you should still receive a formal notice by mail or email from the Settlement Administrator. Direct notice will be completed by November 24, 2025. You do not need to resubmit your Claim Form if you already filed online.

My Book Isn’t on the Works List. What Do I Do?

Search the Works List by author name and book title to be sure you don’t miss any of your books. If you don’t find your books on the Works list, they are not included in the settlement. The court ordered the list to be finalized by the parties by September 15 and is not allowing it to be kept open, so it is unlikely that works not already on the list will be added.

The reasons a book would not be included in Works List are: 

• Your book was not downloaded by Anthropic from LibGen or PiLiMi. Anthropic downloaded from LibGen in June 2021 and in July 2022 from PiLiMi (the books they did not already have from Libgen). If you found your books on LibGen through The Atlantic website, that just means it was on Libgen at the time the data was downloaded in 2025; it does not mean it was on LibGen in June of 2021 and even if it was, that it was downloaded by Anthropic;
• Your book was not published with an ISBN or ASIN; or
• Your book was not registered with the Copyright Office (1) within five years of publication and (2) either before Anthropic downloaded it or within three months of publication.

While mistakes in the class list are highly unlikely given the rigorous approach taken in its compilation, if none of the above conditions are true, you may write to the Settlement Administrator at the address listed on the settlement website for further explanation.

Check Whether Your Book Was Registered with the Copyright Office

Start by searching the U.S. Copyright Office public catalog (https://publicrecords.copyright.gov). But keep in mind common reasons you might not find a registration even if one exists:

• Spelling issues: The author’s name or title may be misspelled or abbreviated in the Copyright Office database.
• Variations in names: The book may be registered under a different name (e.g., publisher’s name, pen name, or co-author’s name).
• Different title: Registrations sometimes use a working title, series title, or alternate title.
• Date ranges: Make sure you expand the date search if you’re unsure when the book was registered.
• Data entry quirks: Older registrations may not be digitized or may appear in formats that don’t match modern search expectations.

Use the advanced search function and try out different combinations of search. If you still cannot locate a registration:

• Review your publishing contract to see if the publisher was responsible for registering the copyright.
• If the publisher agreed to register, contact them and ask for confirmation and a copy of the registration certificate.
• If neither you nor your publisher registered the book, your book will not be added to the class. However, if your contract stipulates that your publisher will register copyright in your name—and the publisher failed to do so—then you may have a breach of contract claim against the publisher.

We are grateful that Macmillan has stepped up and offered to make authors whole for the lost settlement award as a result of the publisher’s failure to register copyright, and we hope that other publishers will follow suit. We are working on getting more information on books that were rejected due to publishers’ failure to register copyright.

If you are an Authors Guild member, and need our finding your registration, communicating with your publisher, or with any other registration-related issue, please send in a legal help request. If you are not currently a member, and would like our assistance, you can learn about membership and join here.