Anthropic Burped…
There Is Movement… May Mean Nothing…
Most of you know that Kris and I and WMG Publishing have a lot of tittles in the Anthropic settlement. And I do mean a lot. And the expectation of any kind of payment is pretty much on the bottom of any reality. But some folks who know a lot more than I do are saying that payments are in process and it could be as soon as September 17th.
Yup, and pigs really can fly.
But today, Kris and I both got emails from Anthropic on books that were opted out. Disney, in their not caring at all about creators, opted out all the Marvel books and Kris and I wrote the X-Men novelization of the first movie and I wrote another X-Men novel, two Spider-Man novels, and an Iron Man novel. I knew that, but claimed them anyway, so this is no surprise.
But here is what my form letter from Anthropic said…
First it had my claim number at the top (one of them) and then it had this…
| We received your claim in the Anthropic Copyright Settlement. Your claim currently includes works which have been opted out of the Settlement. If any rightsholder opted out a work, then that work is opted out for all rightsholders of the work.
The works below have been opted out. You will not receive a payment for these works, but you are not releasing any claims with respect to them. |
| Opted Out Works on Your Claim |
| Copyright Number | Title |
|---|---|
| TX0005253099 | X-Men |
| TX0005383764 | X-Men |
———————-
Well, the word that sort of shocked me was “payments” and then this letter itself. Clearly the secret master, wait, that is “Special Master” is working through all this. Kris got the same letter about the X-Men novel and I got another one about the Spider-Man books.
So here it is in August and there is movement and a mention of payments.
I’m still betting pigs don’t fly.
But something is happening, the appeals do not appear to stop the payment process, so we shall see. The letters sure were a surprise.
3 Comments
Vincent Zandri
There were no author appeals following the July 20 final approval. They gave authors up to August 19 to appeal. Nobody did, so those pigs are indeed gonna fly. Now am I gonna get the 3k per book? Let’s see just how far those pigs can fly without crashing! Lol
dwsmith
Vincent, in theory the first round of payments will be about 2/3 of the total,with another payment coming later in the fall and a final one distributing all that is left to everyone. Total might get to 3K or so per book.
I’m interested in how the special master divides up the anthologies. Especially the ones where half the table of contents is dead, the publisher is dead, the editor is dead. I wonder how many estates got into this and how the total will be divided up among those of us who did claim.
Chong Go
That’s messed up. It seems like the exemption clause should be the other way around.