Judge delays Anthropic $1.5B copyright settlement approval

A federal judge has postponed the final approval of Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement, which was intended to resolve claims of widespread book piracy for AI training. Objections from authors and class members highlighted concerns over excessive legal fees, estimated at over $320 million, while individual author payouts are reportedly a mere $3,000. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin is seeking to understand these objections better, questioning the disparity between the lawyers' compensation and the class members' awards. Some objectors argue that the legal team settled too quickly to maximize their own fees rather than securing better terms for authors, potentially jeopardizing the settlement's future.