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  • Did someone forget to consult with the MPAA and the RIAA on this one? This is a joke of an outcome. $3k per book. How much was it per song for Napster?
  • For anyone who thinks the problem is Anthropic, I want you all to know that most authors make less than the median income. Most make less than $20,000 a year, because publishing houses give authors an advance, and then authors must pay back that entire advance in sales before they see a dollar of profit from their work.

    Most never do.

    Maybe publishers should JUST pay authors WELL, and get a book every 2-3 years.

    https://authorsguild.org/news/key-takeaways-from-2023-author...

  • To be clear, the issue is not that the books were used to train Claude, but that they were pirated.
  • I do recall that a "famous redditor" was driven to suicide for making works available and he wasn't even making money for it.
  • But why not jail like Kim Dotcom? And why no Feds jumping on Dario’s window? They are not only pirating, they also resell it!
  • Judge Alsup issued the original order that determined they were liable for piracy but that training LLMs on books was fair use. It's worth reading if you're interested in the topic. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69058235/231/bartz-v-an...
  • If you have the time, read the judge's response to the motion:

    https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.43...

    The big deal for publishers and authors is the payout per eligible title is $3k. For a traditional publishing contract involving one author, the amount will be split down the middle.

    The other thing which caught my eye is the judge slashed the class counsel's fee by half, from 12.5% ($187.5m) to 6.8% ($101m). The class counsel's unreimbursed litigation expenses were $2.6m.

    The three class representatives get just $15k each.

  • A one time payment like 1.5B doesn’t do anything. There needs to be a royalty payment based on if the AI regurgitates existing ideas. That is probably the correct way to legislate this. If anything a human does can instantly be copied by an LLM, and then sent to all its subscribers, things need to change

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Judge approves $1.5B Anthropic settlement for pirated books used to train Claude · Birbla