Authors Say Publishers Are Claiming Shares of the $1.5B Anthropic Settlement for Books They No Longer Hold Rights To

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With the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement finally approved in July 2026 and paying $3,000 per pirated title across nearly 500,000 works, authors are now disputing how publishers and literary agents are carving up the money. The split is meant to be 50/50 for in-print books and 100% to the author for out-of-print and self-published titles, with rights reverted before August 10, 2022 belonging to the author; HarperCollins was cited claiming a book by April Henry whose rights reverted more than 17 years ago. Agents are also claiming percentages despite not being rights holders, and the Authors Guild is pointing writers at the dispute process.