A list of Important places to search for your book once it’s been published. Scroll down for updates on AI lawsuits and history of settlement actions including the Anthropic lawsuit.
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/search Search for your book’s U.S. copyright filing. If you do not find it, tell your editor and CC your agent. Your book’s contract usually/should include a clause about the publisher’s responsibility to file copyright (mine is under Clause 16), and it should be filed within the first six months of publication. Because of reduced staffing at the copyright office, there is a backlog. If you are worried, your editor can tell you when your work was filed and provide a confirmation number. While everything you create is automatically yours, U.S. Copyright Office filing demonstrates proof of ownership and is essential (and often required) if you are pursuing an infringement lawsuit.
WorldCat.org — See how many libraries have your books and where they are in circulation.
Ingram https://www.ingramcontent.com/retailers/stock-check-app Search where your book is warehoused to ensure it’s in stock for your needed distribution area. All you need to do is scan your barcode. Why this matters: “Tell your editor/publicist to tell the Publisher Sales Rep who sells to Ingram to tell the Ingram Buyer to stock your books — especially in the regions where you’re going to be traveling. Because bookstores can only order books from the two closest Ingram warehouses for free. If a shop in Boston wants a book that’s only in the Oregon warehouse, they have to pay extra for the shipping.” — Josh Funk
Video on how to use the Ingram app: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOERX_ngJx0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Ai Scraping related:
HaveIBeenTrained.com: Currently under maintenance. Was the best spot to look up if your artwork had been scraped.
LAWSUITS: AI related copyright lawsuits, newest to oldest beginning 2025: (newest to oldest)
Five major publishing houses – Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers and McGraw Hill – along with bestselling author Scott Turow, on May 5, 2026, filed a putative class action against Meta Platforms Inc. and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (captioned Elsevier Inc. et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc. et al., Case No. 1:26-cv-03689).
05/05/26: 5 Big Publishers file copyright infringement suit against Meta: Publishers File Lawsuit Against Meta, Mark Zuckerberg
Major publishing houses and bestselling author Scott Turow have sued Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, alleging Meta used pirated copyrighted works to train its Llama artificial intelligence (AI) models and removed copyright management information to conceal the sources.
03/19/26: The deadline to file a claim in the $1.5 billion Bartz v. Anthropic settlement is Monday, March 30. We encourage every eligible author to file. https://mailchi.mp/authorsguild/campaign-7854125?e=49f9dcd97b
11/30/25: The searchable Works List and Claim Forms are now available at www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com. The deadline to file a claim for the suit is March 23rd, 2026.
General things to know:
-If your search results in a large number of Works, you may reach out to BulkClaimFiling(at)AnthropicCopyrightSettlement.com for assistance in reviewing your works and filing a claim.
Why has the qualifying number of books reduced so much from the original database?
– The books included must have been pirated before July 2021. Your title had to be in the database by then. You’ll get about $3000, but likely a bit more split between you and your publisher, minus legal fees. That’s 1.5 billion dollars divided by about half a million claims. The exact amount will depend on how many accept the settlement. You can read the FAQ here: https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/faq
– Re fair use in this instance: The judge in the case determined two things: 1) It was fair use if it wasn’t taken from pirated books site. 2) the ones taken from the pirate site need to be compensated in the settlement, according to parameters they’ve worked out. (via Deborah Halverson)
– Additionally, many titles were disqualified from filing because they were deemed “educational.” I don’t know why that matters, but for this case, it does.
– The download timeline in the official claim was much narrower. I feel the Atlantic did a disservice by posting a very flawed database. Several people have reported having many titles on the original database, implying that they were indeed compromised, only to now see only a few or none.
– Should I decline the offer and file my own lawsuit? According to one author’s judge husband, you can decline the offer and bring your own lawsuit. However if enough people decline the offer oftentimes there is a clause that causes the settlement to fall apart. Similarly, if enough people opt out of the existing settlement, we could all join together to bring a separate lawsuit. But as of right now there is nothing to be decided. Absent a adverse judgment against them Anthropic is not going to admit wrongdoing. Virtually every settlement is no admission of liability . But the best indication of liability is how much they are paying to settle the matter. We’ll have to wait and see.
11/10/25:
 Unaffiliated Law Firm Solicits Authors to Opt Out of Anthropic Settlement. Class Counsel Calls it “Bait and Switch.” AALA members should be aware that ClaimsHero, an Arizona law firm not affiliated with the Bartz v. Anthropic case, has launched a website inviting authors to opt out of the Anthropic settlement. According to class counsel’s filing with the judge in the Anthropic case, previous versions of the site’s language were misleading, essentially a “bait and switch.” Authors who sign up through ClaimsHero are opting out of the class action and lose eligibility for any potential payment through the settlement.Agents are encouraged to advise clients who wish to participate in the class action to disregard ClaimsHero’s outreach. Unless their clients are opting out for some other reason, they should only submit claims through the official class website. |
11/02/25 Open Ai Lawsuit moving forward. Article at Publisher’s Weekly here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/98961-authors-class-action-lawsuit-against-openai-moves-forward.html?oly_enc_id=0806A3430278D0U
10/01/25: The official claim site is up HERE: https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/
10/10/25: Update on Anthropic case with info from ABLA: The compensation is set at $3000 per title, to be split equally between the creators and publisher. (Note that legal and administrative fees will be subtracted, so the actual amount of the per-claimant award is not yet known.)
The only way to determine whether your work is included in the Settlement is by checking
this searchable database. If your title does not appear, you do not need to do anything because
you are not eligible to be a member of the class. Eligible books are those that were
a) downloaded by Anthropic,
b) have an ISBN or ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number),
c) were registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within five years of publication, and
d) were registered before being downloaded by Anthropic or within three months of
publication.
While official Settlement notices will be sent to eligible creators starting in November, it is
possible to file a claim now online. Before doing so, please read the information carefully on visit the Anthropic Settlement website and familiarize yourself with the resources we’ve compiled for
you below. If you choose to file a claim, you have until March 23, 2026 to do so.
If, after reviewing these resources, you do not have the information you need to file your claim
now, please hold off. We anticipate that organizations like the Authors Guild and the
Association of American Literary Agents will be providing supplementary information in the
coming weeks. It’s best not to rush to file your claim; there is no benefit in being early. Again,
the deadline for filing a claim is not until March 23, 2026.
To note for illustrators: While earlier we had believed that illustrators would not
be eligible for settlement compensation, we have since learned that this is not
the case. If you are an illustrator who contributed to a book that appears in the
searchable database and you held copyright or were paid a royalty, it is our
understanding that you are considered a beneficial owner and are eligible to file
a claim if your book appears in the searchable database.
10/04/25 from Kate Messner: Editing to add: you will need a unique ID to actually file the claim, and you should get that later – by the end of November, according to reports. So maybe check the list but otherwise, sit tight for right now until you get that notification.
09/16/25: One agency posted this statement about which books were scraped:
Author & illustrator friends – the Anthropic Copyright Settlement Website is up now and you can search it to see how many of your titles are included in the class action. (Early note – it does not seem to match up exactly with the full LibGen database, even for titles where copyrights were filed promptly, so I expect there are going to be a lot of questions. The FAQ on this site explains that by saying that the official class list was compiled using files Anthropic actually downloaded, and some of those listed on the Atlantic’s database were added after Anthropic downloaded its titles in 2021, even though they were published earlier.)
https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/
09/08/25: Hearing update. Judge not approving settlement without further understanding of how funds will be distributed. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/anthropic-judge-blasts-copyright-pact-as-nowhere-close-to-done
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI, info provided by the Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/…/search-libgen…/682094/
Terms of the Anthropic court case settlement, info provided by The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/05/anthropic-settlement-ai-book-lawsuit
How to apply to receive your settlement, info provided by The Author’s Guild: https://authorsguild.org/news/anthropic-ai-class-action-important-information-for-authors/
“The Authors Guild, many literary agencies, and other organizations have been working to get the word out and reach as many authors whose works may be part of the class as possible. If you believe Anthropic may have downloaded your book(s) from LibGen or PiLiMi, please visit www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com to provide your contact information to class counsel in case your books are on the final Works list. Class counsel will use the contact information and other data submitted through the class action website to match and notify authors whose books are on this list.”
History of AI in Publishing
November 2024 HarperCollins AI Licensing Deal – The Authors Guild
Publisher’s Weekly: Agents, Authors Question HarperCollins AI Deal
“Multiple sources have now confirmed to PW the broad strokes of the deal, which has been widely reported, including at Bloomberg, which asserts that the deal is with Microsoft, per an anonymous source. In a statement, Harper representatives confirmed only that the agreement with an undisclosed company will “allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles” for use in training AI models “to improve model quality and performance.”
The deal is for a three-year period, and authors must opt in, per PW’s source. For those authors who do opt in, the deal provides for a $5,000 fee per book, split evenly between the author and the publisher at $2,500 each; payments will be not counted against author royalties. Crucially, agents confirmed that the deal is effectively a one-off, implemented via contract addenda, and does not seek to establish a new AI licensing right. Sources also confirmed that the unnamed AI company has agreed to several protective terms, including a commitment to limit verbatim reproduction and an agreement not to train on pirated content.
News of the deal comes as HarperCollins parent company News Corp has been aggressively pursuing AI deals, with the company reaching a reported $250 million agreement for AI training on Wall Street Journal content earlier this year. In the book world, academic and professional publishers including Taylor & Francis and Wiley have also announced AI licensing deals this year. But in terms of trade books, HarperCollins appears to be the first and only Big Five publisher to offer an AI licensing deal.”
Note: 2022 was the beginning of Generative AI. Look for artists who have a reputation before this with no unusual big jumps in style and skillset. Avoid finding illustrators on platforms rife with grifters, such as Reddit and Fiverr. Get a referral. Vet the artists.
The Kaz Windness Blog 
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