AI Firm Slashes Fee Bid by $125M in Copyright Deal

Law firms involved in a significant copyright settlement with AI company Anthropic have reduced their demand for attorney fees. The firms Susman Godfrey and Lieff Cabraser, initially requesting $300 million, have now sought $187.5 million, which represents 12.5% of the $1.5 billion settlement fund. This revised request followed objections from Anthropic and the court overseeing the case regarding the original fee proposal and a plan to split fees with other firms not formally appointed to represent the class.

Anthropic agreed to the settlement in August to resolve allegations of using hundreds of thousands of pirated books to train its AI models. As part of the accord, the company must destroy pirated datasets and verify that these works were not utilized in its commercial AI products. The settlement, described as the largest reported copyright class action settlement in history, requires Anthropic to pay class members over $3,000 per copyrighted work.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin is scheduled to consider the final approval of the settlement at a hearing on April 23. She took over the case from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who had granted preliminary approval. Judge Alsup had previously opposed the proposed fee split, citing the principle that appointed counsel cannot delegate responsibility for the class to others.

Despite the reduction in the fee request by the lead firms, they acknowledged the substantial contributions made by Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard, Edelson, and Oppenheim + Zebrak to the class's benefit. Attorneys from Edelson expressed pride in their negotiation efforts and trial preparation work. The final decision on the settlement and the attorney fees rests with Judge Martinez-Olguin.