Feeling Violated, Authors? “Move fast and break things” has been a recurring motif in the rise of tech moguls. In the case of artificial intelligence, this philosophy, if one can call it that, may have hit a wall. The result could be the same as a car doing 90 miles an hour hitting a wall—not good for the wall and for sure not good for those in the car.
The law in question is the 1976 US Copyright Act, which is the most recent version of statutory protections for writers, or more broadly anyone who writes something. For better or worse, rich or poor, I am a writer. I am not an attorney.
As for Big Tech and AI, they hire lawyers to find loopholes that make their behavior at least seem legal. In the case of Anthropic and the writers suing the developers of the artificial intelligence named Claude, the case was settled in August 2025. Or was it?
Anthropic, in a fit of entitlement fueled by billions of dollars of investors’ money and Silicon Valley hubris, decided to let their AI “scrape” (read) thousands upon thousands of e-books. But, in what can only be called a cheapskate move, instead of purchasing the e-books, Anthropic sent its bots to sites that offer pirated editions of author’s works. In other words, they not only ignored copyright law, but they decided to totally screw authors by not paying anything for their books.
Anthropic got caught. So, they settled the copyright lawsuit for $1.5 billion dollars. Under this settlement, writers who had their works abused by the bots are eligible to receive as much as $3,000 for each copyrighted work that was “scraped.” For context, the statutory payment for willful copyright infringement is $150,000. In the settlement, Anthropic admitted no wrongdoing.
Social media platforms have been the main source of disseminating information about this settlement. Why is this important now? Because one deadline for writers—Jan. 29—has passed, and two more final deadlines are approaching—all to do with opting in or out of the settlement. Opting out could be much more lucrative for authors who have suffered copyright violation.
Now, according to a recent study by researchers at Yale and Stanford, the AI platforms ChatGPT OpenAI), Grok (X and Elon Musk), Claude, and Gemini (Google) may have indulged in this illicit behavior. Worse, contrary to public statements and, in some cases, court testimony, if you use the right prompts, these AI platforms will spit out the texts of copyrighted books.
If you’re interested in learning more about the options available to authors, arts advocate and attorney Deborah Hrbek has a concise article explaining the options on her website hrbeklaw.com.
Eternally Youthful: the writer, cartoonist, and bon vivant Anthony Haden-Guest turns 89 at the beginning of the month. He quit his amateur boxing and kickboxing activities last year. But he has upped his artistic output and is headlining two group shows this month. The Manhattan branch of the International Fusionism (IF) Museum at 57 Stanton Street is displaying works the erstwhile octogenarian calls “splattoons”; the exhibit also includes Shalom Neuman and Ian Crofts in a group show that can be seen Thursday-Sunday afternoons. Ilon Gallery, in Harlem, is also showing Haden-Guest’s cartoons, by appointment. Of course, there’s a birthday party again this year. It’s taking place Feb. 2 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Baker’s Falls, 192 Allen St. on the Lower East Side.
The Free Verse Mob will continue to present readings and celebrations of publication this month. Here are some highlights: Barbara Rosenthal will read from her book Dual to the Finish: Erotic Poetry of Love, Chagrin and Irony (Xanadu Press, 2025), on Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. at One and One, 76 East 1st St.. Hosted by Julius Klein.
Rosenthal will also read at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Live Mag at Bowery Poetry Club on Nov. 18. The anniversary issue includes art, photography and poetry by Luigi Cazzaniga, Andrei Codrescu, Monique Erickson, Anders Goldfarb, Uche Nduka, Lori Ortiz, Bob Rosenthal, and Jerome Sala.
Plus the Live Mag! 9th Annual Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Barbara Henning. Live Mag was founded by Jeffrey Cyphers Wright.
NY Poets will continue its series every Tuesday, also at Bowery Poetry Club. Poets this month include John Coletti, Jordan Davis, Elaine Equi, Ama Birch, Elinor Nauen, Jerome Sala, Brenda Coultas. Peter Bushyeager, Joe Elliot, Erica Hunt, Ann Lauterbachm and Charles North.
Ed Sanders will kick of the next month of readings on March 3.
There are poetry-centric events every evening at Bowery Poetry, 308 Bowery between East Houston and Bleecker St. Their website is bowerypoetry.com.
Lust in the Library – Village Story Salon at the Hudson Park Library
Thursday Feb. 12, 6-8 p.m. 66 Leroy St. (just west of 7th Avenue).
A favorite monthly themed reading series with a Q&A, featuring the Village Star-Revue’s Michele Herman. Just in time for Valentine’s Day the theme is lust. Free, no reservation needed.
Is Your Event Bohemian Enough? – In order to have your event listed in this column, please read this. Events should be taking place in downtown Manhattan. Deadline for submissions is the 20th day of the month before the event is held (ex., March 20 for the April issue). There’s no guarantee you will be listed but I will do my best. I will respond if your event is to be included in an upcoming column. The March column is already full. Send announcements for April and beyond to [email protected]. Thank you.
DiLauro is a poet, playwright, and filmmaker. His directorial debut, Painted Mom, a feature-length horror movie, is now in production.
