Anthropic Settlement Update: The Opt-Outs Strike Back

We’re currently waiting for Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin to issue final approval of the historic settlement in the Bartz v, Anthropic copyright infringement lawsuit. (If you need a refresher, my past blog posts include a general overview of the settlement and an April update.) One of the interesting outcomes–so far–has been that while participation by class members has been extraordinarily robust (91.3%, with claims filed for 440,490 of the 482,460 works on the elgible works list), the number of class members who opted out has been quite small–just 350, according to a motion for final approval filed by plaintiffs in March (the opt-out deadline was February 9). Opting out preserved those individuals’ right to sue Anthropic on their own. And indeed, in recent months, several lawsuits have been filed, representing approximately a third of the writers who opted out. Each suit is interesting in its own way. Carreyrou v. Anthropic If you’ve been following the progress of the settlement,…