Some authors expecting their share of Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement have received emails suggesting that someone else is making a claim on their payments. Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, settled a copyright class action lawsuit last year after a judge ruled that training AI models on copyrighted material is legal under the fair use doctrine, but copying that material without permission is not. The settlement received final approval in July, allowing the payments to begin. Under the agreement, authors of nearly 500,000 books will receive $3,000 for each work that was pirated by Anthropic. If the book is still in print with a traditional publisher, the author and publisher will split the payment equally. If the book was self-published or if the publisher lost its rights by allowing the book to go out of print, the author should receive the full amount. Writers have been raising concerns on social media about publishers claiming more than their share of some payments. Mystery and thriller author April Henry questioned why HarperCollins was claiming one of her books, which had reverted to her more than 17 years ago. She also noted that she received a credit alert claiming HarperCollins had been added as her employer, which was incorrect. Victoria Strauss, a writer and blogger at the popular site Writers Beware, reported that many authors are complaining about two main issues: publishers claiming rights to books they no longer have a legitimate claim on, and publishers seeking full payment when they are only entitled to half. Strauss suggested that these issues might be due to poor record-keeping rather than intentional wrongdoing, and some publishers have already asked Anthropic to correct the errors. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger told The New York Times that she does not believe publishers are intentionally trying to take advantage of authors. Instead, she said the problems are likely the result of confusion and poor record-keeping in the settlement process. Strauss agreed, noting that while the complaints she has seen are just a small sample, the high number of similar reports suggests a broader issue. She emphasized that the errors are not just random glitches but may be part of a larger, systemic problem. Publishers are not the only ones seeking a share of the payments. Strauss reported that some literary agents are also making claims, which she found surprising since agents typically do not hold the rights to the books they represent. Author Courtney Milan, a former law professor and author writing under the pen name Heidi Bond, was more direct in her criticism, stating that some agents are trying to claim a portion of the settlement and that this behavior should stop immediately. Milan and the Authors Guild have provided more information on how authors can dispute their payment allocations, including the importance of determining when the rights to a specific book reverted. To claim the full $3,000 payment, the rights must have reverted before August 10, 2022, which is the settlement’s “download date.”