A lawyer for the authors confirmed Thursday that “authors and other copyright owners have asserted claims covering 92% of the more than 480,000 works included in the settlement.” But opponents argue that attorneys’ salaries should reflect the total number of plaintiffs, not the total amount in the settlement fund.
By urging the court to make “reasonable and equitable adjustments” to lower attorneys’ fees, Story hopes to increase damages awarded to authors. Providing an example, he noted that “a still generous Attorney’s $70 million payout would result in an approximately 25 percent increase in individual Plaintiff premiums, while Attorney’s hours would still be equal to their current top rates.”
For the story, it also appeared that attorneys could have gotten more compensation for authors, but instead of making “creative choices,” they “settled too quickly to maximize” their compensation.
“If the attorneys were as skilled, brave, and brilliant as they claim to be, and if Counsel had the “run away from home” headquarters that Counsel claims, Plaintiffs would have gotten more than that pittance,” Story said.
Reuben Lee, another objecting class member, agreed: “I believe the amount offered is paltry and in no way reflects the full value of the unauthorized use of my work.”
The objectors may not win every battle, but they have apparently persuaded the court to at least accept their strongly worded pleas, including warnings that the settlement may not survive an appeal unless the terms are revised. It should be noted that their protests came just before the 25 class members who left the settlement filed a new lawsuit. claimIt shows that Anthropic is not fighting these claims.
“For the court to settle the attorney’s demand for nearly a third of a billion dollars, leaving the individual plaintiffs with a paltry amount of existing compensation and no protection against future abuse, is a travesty of civil justice and a slap in the face to all those who work hard to publish their work,” Story said. “Such a decision would also reinforce the all-too-common stereotype that … class action lawsuits are merely vehicles used to extract Powerball-sized payouts for lawyers.”
