By Kim Pawlak

While the final settlement in the landmark $1.5 billion copyright infringement class action Bartz v. Anthropic was finalized by the court on July 20, Class Counsel said class members will not begin receiving payments until at least the end of the year. Payments could be further delayed, they said, if anyone files an appeal of the court’s decision before the 30-day appeal period that ends on August 19. Payments will also be made in two stages, roughly 70% in the first stage and 30% in the second, as Anthropic will be making settlement payments in installments through September 2027.

If no appeals are filed, an online portal will be launched by the end of August that contains claimants’ consolidated claim forms. The portal will include the title of each work, its copyright number, the names of other claimants and the percentages each are claiming. If the claim percentages match for all claimants of a work, said Class Counsel, funds will be dispersed via the method submitted by each claimant. ACH and wire payments are preferred. If you have not provided payment information to the Settlement Administrator, JND, contact them at (877) 206-2314 or info@AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com. You do not have to wait until the portal is available before requesting a report on your claim. You can contact JND at the contact information above. If an appeal is filed, according to Class Counsel, the claims process will be on pause temporarily until they can determine how to proceed.

If percentages claimed do not match, e.g., if you and your publisher each claim 100%, Class Counsel said claimants can reach out to each other directly to resolve, or contact JND, which will serve as an intermediary with the goal of reaching a compromise between the claimants. During this “meet and confer” process, authors can also ask JND to share a note with other claimants (including the publisher) that supports their claim, ask for a copy of their publishing contract, or ultimately if no compromise can be reached, request that their claim be submitted to the Special Master for review and final decision. Once the claim reaches the Special Master, all communications with claimants will go through the Special Master, rather than JND, according to Class Counsel.

While the details of each claim will be confidential, Class Counsel will issue a publicly available accounting at the end of the claims process that identifies all claimants and the total dollar amount each received from the settlement. However, whether the Special Master was involved will not be made public.

​View TAA’s guidance for educational authors on how to navigate the meet and confer process in the event fellow claimants don’t agree on the percentage split. This guidance is available for TAA members only. Not a member? Join for only $30.