For those of you waiting to receive some kind of compensation in the Anthropic lawsuit (and indeed those who are waiting on other potential lawsuits and wondering if anything other than hot air is ever likely to come of them), the wait is one step closer to being over. A judge has issued the final approval for the $1.5 billion settlement in the class action case of Bartz v. Anthropic. This will see each of the 91.3 percent of titles in the eligible class whose owners came forward receive payment.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
And after much to-ing and fro-ing, the amount of that payment per title looks set to be, er, around $3,000—the exact same amount that was mentioned right from the start.
Two Points of Note in the Ruling
The amount of the individual per-title payments aside, there are two points of note in the ruling. First is the large cut in legal fees. At $187 million-plus, the amount sought was already significantly lower than the commonplace 25 percent of settlement pool. The judge cut that further to just over $100 million, essentially arguing that there hadn't been a huge amount for lawyers to do in order to justify a higher fee level. This means, of course, that there is more money available for paying to the class itself, hence the $3,000 figure remaining stable despite the large number of eligible class members that has come forward.
Copyright Registration Objection Struck Down
And second, all the objections (in fairness not that many given the numbers involved) were struck down. The one that is of most note relates to registration of copyright. One objection pointed out that requiring registration of copyright had placed hundreds of thousands of otherwise eligible titles outside the class, and contended that such registration wasn't actually required. That this has been struck down may have significant consequences for future settlements, especially for indies. Especially as it comes at the same time as the Copyright Office has proposed raising the fee for registering a work from $45 to $55 (thanks to Nate Hoffelder for pointing that out).
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