Oldpub Just Reminded Authors Who Really Owns Their Books

Newpub has long warned oldpub authors that publishing contracts demand a dear price in return for advances and royalties. Now a $1.5 billion A.I. settlement gives us an expensive demonstration of why.

The Bartz v. Anthropic copyright case concerned books which A.I. firm Anthropic downloaded from pirate libraries while developing its models. The resulting settlement is expected to pay roughly $3,000 per eligible title, with authors and publishers splitting the money when both hold relevant rights.

Which sounded good, until authors checked who’d claimed the rights to their books.

The Authors Guild reports that writers whose books went out of print years; even decades ago, were claimed by their former publishers as part of the settlement.

Now, the Guild has asked publishers to withdraw claims on books that haven’t sold or produced royalty statements in more than ten years.

The trope of a dispute over serious money arising from a dusty clause buried in an old contract drives many a mystery thriller and courtroom drama. But now real life is imitating fiction.

And every author should take notice.

Read the full post on Substack.