Anthropic Settlement Claims Process FAQs

For information regarding the settlement in Bartz, et al., v. Anthropic, please refer to the Anthropic Copyright Settlement Website at www.AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com.

Please note that you may be eligible to receive a cash payment if you are a legal or beneficial owner of a work on the defined Works List, available at www.AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com/lookup. You may have received a Notice regarding the settlement from “JND Legal Administration,” the Claims Administrator. Please carefully review the Notice, which sets forth your rights as a potential claimant and includes instructions for submitting a claim.

All claimants should submit their own claims via the online Claim Form through the Settlement Website. There will often be multiple rightsholders submitting a claim on a single work (e.g., an author that retains the copyright in her work, and the publisher to which she granted exclusive publishing rights). It will be important for all claimants to submit the correct information in order to facilitate the smooth resolution of claims, as differences will need to be resolved before the claim is paid.

In addition to the Notice, there are comprehensive FAQs on the Settlement Website, linkable through the Claim Form. Please first check the FAQs if you have any questions about the claims process. If you have additional questions, please contact the Claims Administrator at (877) 206-2314 or info@AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com. In addition, there are a few areas of clarification that we have addressed below in order to help ensure your claim proceeds smoothly through the process.

As my publisher, can Hachette submit my claim for me? No, publishers are not authorized to submit a claim on your behalf. For more information on what happens if you do not submit your claim, see FAQ 46.

I did not receive a Notice, can I still submit a claim? If you did not receive a Notice, you can still submit a claim through the Settlement Website if your work is on the Works List.
My book is not on the Works List, can I still submit a claim? If your book is not on the Works List, it is not eligible for settlement recovery because it did not meet the class definition. Among other things, eligible works must have actually been downloaded by Anthropic from LibGen or Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi) from July 2021 through August 2022, and must have been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within five years of publication and before being downloaded by Anthropic (or within three months of publication). If you have questions about a specific title, please forward it to your editor and we will get back to you.

Identifying titles. If you received a “Unique ID” with your Notice, please enter it when prompted on the Claim Form. Doing so will cause the Claim Form to load a pre-populated list of the title(s) from the Works List that the Claims Administrator has identified as associated with you in some way. It is still your responsibility to confirm that this information is accurate, and to add other titles on the Claim Form if you own the rights and they appear on the Works List, but do not appear automatically after entering your Unique ID.

Bulk submission. If you have a large number of titles on the Works List, you may request a bulk claim form rather than entering each title into the Claim Form. The bulk claim form is generally available for 50 or more titles, but the Claims Administrator may be willing to provide the form for smaller numbers of titles as well. Contact the Claims Administrator to request the form.

Progress will not save. Note that the Claim Form does not save your progress as you go, or allow for saving prior to submission, so please be sure you have all of the information needed before spending significant time on the submission process. Once you submit the Claim Form, you will not be able to make changes without contacting the Claims Administrator.

The Claim Form asks if I am a “Sole Owner” – what does this mean? If you have granted rights in your work to another party or publisher (e.g., you have an active publishing relationship with a traditional trade publisher like Hachette), you are likely not considered a “Sole Owner” for purposes of filing a claim in this litigation. Consult FAQ 8, the Claims Administrator, or your own agent or attorney if you have questions.

What if my rights in an eligible work were reverted back to me? The relevant time period is the period when Anthropic’s download took place (July 2021- August 2022). Hachette intends to submit claims for works for which it held valid publishing rights during that time period.

What contact information should I use for my publisher, and should I identify my imprint? You are not required to fill in the fields for Hachette’s contact information, and you can simply identify Hachette Book Group as your publisher. If you wish, you can include our address: Hachette Book Group, attn: Legal, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104.

The Claim Form asks if my book is an “Education Work” – should I say yes? This is a defined term in the settlement, and includes books published by traditional educational publishers. See FAQ 22 for more information. Most books published by trade publishers including Hachette are not considered Education Works for purposes of this settlement.

What is the “Default” option for allocating the claim? The default percentage of recovery split (the “Default Option”) for all works other than Education Works is 50/50 between authors and publishers who submit valid claims for the same work. See FAQ 21 for more information. Hachette intends to accept the default 50/50 split in most cases, so if the other claimant(s) do the same, that percentage split should be applied without further determination from the Claims Administrator. If you do not elect the Default Option, you will be required to submit the contractual basis for the percentage you claim by uploading the supporting documentation through the Settlement Website.

What happens if I don’t put in the same information as another rightsholder for my book? The Claims Administrator will attempt to reconcile any differences, and if there is a dispute, it will be decided by the Court appointed Special Master. This may delay the resolution and payment of the claim.

What if I made a mistake when I submitted my claim? Please contact the Claims Administrator and get their assistance to correct any errors before the March 30, 2026 deadline in order to avoid any delay in the resolution and payment of the claim.

What happens if one of the rightsholders for my book opts out? If any of the rightsholders for an eligible work opts out, none of the rightsholders for that title can make a claim. See FAQ 40 for more information. Hachette does not intend to opt out.

When do I receive payment? Payment will be handled by the Claims Administrator and if there are no disputes, you should receive your payment within a few months of the claim submission deadline. You can select your preferred method of receiving payment on the Claim Form.