Industry & Advocacy News
September 4, 2026
As part of the claims reconciliation process in the Anthropic copyright class action lawsuit, the settlement administrator sent out notices this week to all claimants summarizing each of their claims, who else filed a claim for each title, and what percentage of the award others claimed.
The notice provides you with a unique Claim Number, a PIN, and a link to a secure portal where you can review the claim details. A screen shot of the login page is below.
Most claimants will simply be asked to confirm the details. They will also be able to update their payment information and address if those details have changed since they filed the claim. A screen shot of the “Consolidated Claims Form Summary—No Disagreements” page is below.
For some claimants, the notice will indicate that another co-claimant for a given work filed a claim with a conflicting allocation (e.g., the co-claimants disagree on how settlement proceeds for a work should be split). In those cases, claimants are required to check the information previously entered and either confirm or revise that information. Claimants who receive a notice advising of an allocation dispute will be led to a portal link containing additional screens that provide information on how to proceed. A screen shot of the “Consolidated Claims Form Summary—Disagreements” page is below.
Please note that certain publishers have informed the settlement administrator that they mistakenly selected a 100 percent allocation rather than the default option. The administrator is updating those publishers’ allocation percentages accordingly. Authors who are concerned that their publisher seems to have mistakenly selected a 100 percent allocation instead of a default 50-50 split should log in again next week to see if the issue has been corrected. Those changes may resolve any apparent disagreements as to this issue.
Claimants who believe that the allocation amount they originally claimed is correct do not need to change that information. Examples of disputes include situations where the author claimed a 100 percent allocation based on a belief that the rights had reverted to the author, the claimed work was published with an educational publisher who selected a different allocation from the author, or an agent entered a claim for 15 percent. Those scenarios are addressed in more detail below.
Once claimants confirm the allocations or update them in the case of a disagreement, they will next see this screen.
Finally, when they submit the form, they will see a “Success” page like this:
The notices from the actual settlement administrator are not scams, but be aware that scammers have used the Anthropic settlement as bait and set up similar/look-alike or misspelled domain names, so please be sure to check the sender’s email address and information before clicking on any link. Legitimate emails will come from info@anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com, and any links should direct to a page on the settlement website: www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com.
All claimants should have received a notice by September 4, 2026. If you did not receive a notice, you may contact the settlement administrators, JND Legal, by phone at 1-877-206-2314 or by email at info@anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com. But do check your spam folder first.
If the settlement administrator flagged a difference in the percentage split of the award (allocation) for one or more works included in a claim, it means that another rightsholder, such as a publisher or co-author, submitted a claim for the same work and their requested payment percentages do not align with the claimant’s selected percentage(s). For instance, we have heard from authors who thought they had their rights reverted and claimed sole ownership of a title and 100 percent of the award, but the publisher claimed 50 percent. For educational texts, claimants had no default allocation percentage to select, so discrepancies in claimed percentages between authors and publishers appear to be more common. More on this below.
Note that any discrepancy listed is simply a report of what other co-claimants for a given work have claimed. Disputes must be resolved before settlement payments will be distributed to disputing co-claimants. If the claimed allocations listed look incorrect, click on the “Update Allocation” button next to each work and type in the allocation you believe is correct. You will have the option to upload supporting documentation (such as a reversion letter or a copy of the contract) to prove that your chosen allocation is the correct one.
Claimants who receive a notice that states that “All claimants currently agree on the allocations” but this is not correct—for instance, if you selected 100 percent when you filed the claim, but the claim summary states that the parties agree on a default 50-50 split—should immediately contact the settlement administrator at 1-877-206-2314 or info@anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com and let them know that the listed information is incorrect and a disagreement does exist.
The settlement provides a 30-day window for co-claimants to try and resolve any differences by themselves. Unless the difference is resolved and an agreement reached between the claimants, funds for the work will not be released. If the dispute remains unresolved after 30 days, the settlement administrator will initiate contact to try to facilitate a mutually agreeable resolution. If those dispute-resolution efforts are unsuccessful, the dispute will eventually be submitted to a court-appointed Special Master empowered to make a final determination. We recommend co-claimants with a disagreement contact each other to try resolve such disagreements promptly, preferably within 30 days, so that settlement funds may be released.
The Authors Guild’s position is that an author whose rights reverted before August 10, 2022 (the “download” date in the settlement), should be entitled to 100 percent of the funds for the title, depending on the contract. If their publisher(s) also claimed a right to settlement proceeds for the work, that may be due to faulty records on their part. Authors can help resolve that situation by submitting a copy of a reversion letter or other documentation of the reversion to the online portal provided by the settlement administrator. Authors who don’t have a copy of their reversion letter but are certain that rights reverted to them, or if rights reverted by operation of contract or for another reason such as a breach, should submit that information to the settlement administrator via the online portal. Authors can also reach out directly to the publishers and advise them that the rights are reverted and request that the publishers amend their claim accordingly. Authors Guild members who continue to have trouble can submit a request for legal assistance.
Note that if rights in an author’s work reverted after August 10, 2022, the publisher may have a valid claim (assuming it was the legal owner of the rights at the time infringement occurred), and as such the author (and any co-author) may be entitled to only 50 percent of the award (excluding educational works, discussed below).
If an author’s claim involves an educational work, the publisher may be asserting a different split from the author based on language in the relevant agreement. Unlike standard trade publishing agreements—which typically provide an exclusive license for specific uses and expressly reserve the rest of the rights to the author (meaning the publisher only controls the rights specifically granted to it) —educational agreements are often “all rights assignments” where the publisher assumes full ownership of the copyright and the author retains no rights unless specifically set out in the contract (such as for future royalties). Further, most trade contracts contain an express provision regarding actions brought against infringers and allocation among the author and publisher if both cooperate, but very few educational text contracts do. Where contracts include no guidance on infringement action awards in the contract, many educational publishers are claiming that the standard royalty rate in the contract applies. So, for instance, if the royalty rate is 10 percent to the author, educational publishers are claiming 90 percent of the award. Any author who believes that their contract provides for a different split should utilize the dispute resolution process to assert their claim.
The Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) is keeping close track of this and is a good resource for information on educational text claims.
The Guild’s legal team is helping members navigate the dispute-resolution process. If you are Guild member who is confused about the notice or the allocation of settlement proceeds, please send in a legal help request. We will also represent Guild members in proceedings before the Special Master for disputes that remain unsolved after the informal dispute-resolution process has run its course.
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