Preface by webmaster: Click the image to the left to access an excellent blog titled “3 Problems with the Anthropic Settlement” written by Jonathan Bailey that was posted on September 8, 2025 on his Plagiarism Today. The reposting here is with permission.
Jonathan’s blog calls attention to three aspects of the settlement that are important considerations for all content creators going forward. He makes the critical point that this settlement is about the piracy of over 7,000,000+ books, not about how AI used the books to train its platform using them. It’s about how they acquired the books. He also clarifies which authors stand to benefit from the settlement and why the vast majority of the authors of the 7,000,000+ will not receive anything. Lastly, he explains why the “eye-watering” settlement of $1.5B will likely have very little impact on Anthropic and other large AI platforms.
NEWS FLASH: It was widely reported the day after Jonathan posted this blog that Judge Alsup in this case postponed approval of the settlement. He indicated he is skeptical on numerous issues in the settlement and has given the parties in the settlement a September 15 deadline in which to provide additional details of the settlement. The next hearing is set for September 25. Jonathan posted a follow up blog that describes the judge’s reaction.