Settled
AI giant Anthropic has settled the class action lawsuit brought against it. The conflict centered on Anthropic’s use of books to inform its synthetic intelligence — over seven million books, according to the infringement case. The settlement will cost the company a reported $1.5 billion. Eligible content owners (authors and publishers) are expected to receive about $3,000 per book. As of this announcement, about 91% of covered books have been claimed by owners. We understand that 350 authors opted out of the settlement, and will pursue their own legal actions and remedies. Anthropic will also destroy all digital files of the affected books.
Unlocked
Not unrelated to the royalty complications in the note above, Sureel AI (attribution and right company) and Symphonic Distribution (music tech and services) have forged a new partnership which intends to unlock revenue streams for Symphonic clients. Sureel’ technology tracks the use of music compositions in AI-generated content. Sureel’s role is to ensure that payments are tied sensibly to contribution, and enforcing the permission and restrictions levied by creators.
