We start the week with a bit of topping, tailing, and appendixing of some stories we’ve been following for a little while. First and most significantly comes news from the Anthropic case that could have a direct impact, with thanks to Jane Friedman for pointing to the story. It seems as though there might be an appeal in this case. But it’s not coming from where you might expect: the tech giant liable to pay out the $1.5 billion settlement in the class action.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
Instead, the appeal has been lodged by a number of the legal firms involved. You will recall that one of the features of this case is that judges ruled not once but twice that legal fees being sought were too high and that the total paid out to lawyers should be reduced as a proportion of the overall fund: judges held that there hadn’t actually been a huge amount for lawyers to do in the case. Specifically, the appeal is being brought by the lawyers brought in to coordinate for publishers (in recent days, publishers don’t seem to be coming out of this well and doing wonders for their relations with writers).
Clearly, if the appeal is successful and a larger part of the $1.5 billion fund goes to lawyers, that will leave less for rights holders. But even if it is unsuccessful, adding this layer to proceedings is going to hold things up and delay any actual receipts.
Calls for an Investigation Into Amazon’s Use of Physical Books
Meanwhile, following up on the story that Amazon might have been destroying books it used to train AI, including rare books, it seems there may be an investigation into what has actually been going on. A number of parties have written to the Federal Trade Commission, asking it to look into the practice. The concern seems to be based primarily around whether this is a move to entrench a monopoly.
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