Book Pirates & the Law
- rebeccaforster
- Nov 9
- 2 min read
I was clearing the top of my desk today, and came upon an article I had saved from the legal newspaper regarding book pirates and the law. The headline read: Judge allows Anthropic fair use of bought books, not pirated ones. This was welcome news. I understood the ruling on fair use. A certain amount of my copyrighted work—and yours—can be scanned, digitally stored, and used to train AI Claude. However, the company could not claim fair use on its library of more than 7 million copyrighted works downloaded from pirate sites. Since that ruling, Anthropic has agreed to a class action settlement and created a website where an author can search for their work and submit claims for those books. I found 15 of my 40 books listed as part of Anthropic's permanent library. In short, my books were pirated by Anthropic from pirate sites. I realize that 15 books out of 7 million is nothing to Anthropic and to those who believe free is the only satisfying way to get things they want, but let me put this number in perspective. These books represent more than 15 years of my life. Each took between 9 and 12 months to write while I worked full-time and wrote late into the night. Each represents another 6-8 months of submitting my books to publishers via snail mail and waiting for rejection or acceptance. These books represent countless hours driving to bookstores, sitting behind a table, hoping someone would purchase a book from an author they had never heard of. These books represent hundreds of dollars I didn't have as I tried to promote them without the internet. They represent hours that I asked my husband, tired from a day's work, to watch the kids. They represent other hours where I lay awake wondering if it was all worth it. So 15 books out of 7 million means a lot to me and my family. That's why I did the work and put in claims for all 15. I am eligible for up to $3,000 per book. Don't worry, I didn't get too excited. Subtract attorney fees and other costs Anthropic doesn't spell out and a possible split with publishers even though I have owned the rights to all these books for over 20 years, and I'll come out with a few bucks. But money isn't the point. The point is that what was done was shameful, and I know that there is not one executive, or programmer, or person who took my books to read who feels an ounce of that.
If you think your books might be on the list, here is the link.
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