Firm Fights Contact Ban in $1.5 Billion Anthropic Copyright Deal

A third-party firm offering to represent authors who opt-out from a record $1.5 billion AI copyright settlement with Anthropic PBC accused attorneys representing those writers of attempting to gag the firm to protect counsel’s potential $375 million payout in legal fees.

ClaimsHero on Wednesday denied accusations that the firm tricked prospective class members into opting out of the settlement. The firm asked Judge William Alsup to deny plaintiffs’ motion to limit the company’s communications with eligible authors.

Authors’ attorneys want to monopolize communications with members of the copyright lawsuit over Anthropic’s AI training to “protect their own economic interests,” according to the opposition filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

ClaimsHero assured the court that its website was never misleading, and that it unambiguously sought to represent authors that opt out to file individual lawsuits against Anthropic. The firm said it went “above and beyond” to immediately edit its website to address plaintiffs’ concerns, and submitted declarations from six clients who opted out attesting they weren’t misled.

Alsup granted preliminary approval of the class action settlement in September, but last month noted it was too early to assess class members’ reactions to the pact and that the deal may “blow up” before final approval. So far, 58,788 claims have been submitted to the settlement, which provides about $3,000 per work for 482,460 books, according to an Oct. 31 report.

Class counsel said it had no comment on ClaimsHero’s allegations.

Attorneys for the class flagged the third-party claims company to the court on Nov. 4, saying the firm’s website encourages authors who believe they qualify for a settlement payout to fill out a form that may actually exclude authors from the deal.

The misleading communication risks “confused, uninformed opt‑outs, chills participation, and subverts the Court‑approved notice and claims process—harms that compound with every day the campaign remains live,” the motion said. Anthropic agreed.

Class counsel’s motion violates the First Amendment, too, ClaimsHero said, because outside lawyers are protected by free speech to inform potential class members why the settlement award is too low.

Freedman Normand Friedland LLP represents ClaimsHero.

Anthropic is represented by Cooley LLP, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, Lex Lumina LLP, and Morrison & Foerster LLP. Susman Godfrey LLP, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, Cowan Debaets Abrahams & Sheppard LLP, Edelson PC, and Oppenheim + Zebrak LLP represent the authors.

The case is Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, N.D. Cal., No. 24-cv-05417, opposition filed 11/12/25.