Hundreds of Australian writers in line for AI copyright compensation

Under the terms of the settlement, to which Antropic has already agreed, the Australian writers could receive around $4500 for each stolen title. Each of the payments are to be shared with publishers.

The list of stolen books includes Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe and a follow-up novel, All Our Shimmering Skies.

Andy Griffiths and illustrator Terry Denton are also on the list, with the 26-Storey Treehouse.

Several books by Helen Garner, including Postcards from Surfers, The Children’s Bach, The First Stone and The Spare Room, are listed, alongside the names of two winners of the Vogel Prize: the late Andrew McGahan, and Kate Grenville, whose first book, Lilian’s Story, was in the heist.

Melbourne author Kylie Ladd appears on the list with After The Fall; and Kerry Greenwood, who died in March, is listed several times.

One of Australia’s most popular novelists, Kate Morton, had her book The Distant Hours stolen; and one of Australia’s most iconic novels, The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas, is also on the list.

Historian Roland Perry is on the list with Program for a Puppet; and the two-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Rodney Hall, is there with a book called Just Relations.

Blanche d’Alpuget, the widow of Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, appears on the list with Winter in Jerusalem, and Alex Miller is also there with The Ancestor Game.

Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love by Stephanie Dowrick is listed, as are some of the works by Booker Prize-winner Thomas Ken­eally, who has been leading the fight against the theft of copyrighted works by AI machines.

Anna Funder, who made a compelling speech to an inquiry into copyright law in Canberra last week, is also on the list with her novel, All That I Am.

Other Australian books that appear to have been stolen, and whose writers (or their estates) may now be compensated, include: The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale; The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper; The River Home by Hannah Richell; The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman; A Common Loss by Kirsten Tranter; The Hidden Hours by Sara Foster; Phosphorescence: on Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark and Victoria by Julia Baird; The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku; Coda: A Novel by Thea Astley; Beware of the Dog by Peter Corris; and Eminence by Morris West.

The Anthropic Copyright Settlement Website says the $US1.5bn fund allows for payments of approximately $US3000 per work, before deducting costs, fees and expenses.

Anthropic will also be required to destroy all books that it downloaded from the LibGen or PiLiMi datasets and any copies of those books.

Writers who think they may be eligible for a payment must submit a valid claim form by March 23, 2026.

You can search here. You can make a claim here.

Bartz v Anthropic was one of the first copyright lawsuits brought by authors against an AI company for using books without permission to train large language models.

It was filed by nonfiction auth­ors Charles Graeber (The Good Nurse) and Kirk Wallace Johnson (The Feather Thief) and thriller author Andrea Bartz (We Were Never Here).

A US court approved the settlement on September 25.

It will now hold a “fairness hearing” to resolve any outstanding issues, before the payments start to flow.