Get Your Money! (GenAI Copyright Lawsuits Edition) + My 7 October Reads

A few months ago, one of the biggest criminal enterprises responsible for intellectual property theft—Anthropic, owner of the Generative AI program Claude—agreed to settle to the tune of billions of dollars for said theft.

The victory is owed in significant part to the Authors Guild; the craft's oldest professional group, which exists to support writers of all stripes on issues like ensuring free expression, fair compensation and contract terms, and protecting enforceable intellectual property rights. So major kudos to the Authors Guild and its advocacy arm for whacking that giant with a rock and a slingshot.

For how much, tho?

That'll be $3000 per pop/book/work if your work is in this list. Now, if you're like Stephen King or Suzanne Collins or something, you probably don't even waste your time getting your $3K back from the pirates (though I would pressure them to do so; it's not like the unused funds get redistributed back to the larger group, so might as well make Anthropic pay it out!) But for many authors, this could be a serious windfall.

Ultimately, Anthropic will pay out up to $1.5 BILLION DOLLARS if all affected parties seek their rightful claims.

If you've ever published ANYTHING and it has an ISBN or US Copyright number, please go and make your claim here. There are loads of self-published works on here, people, so go check.

But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. 🫠 Here is my one cent about what this could mean—

The fact that such a huge proliferator of Slop is willing to settle claims for this much, THIS EARLY could suggest they're accepting the hard fact GenAI isn't feasible without theft. Perhaps the settlement terms indicate a broader industry acceptance of this truth.

Yet the more I think about it, the more I wonder if the Anthropic settlement is much of a victory after all. Look, we know that GenAI cannot exist without stealing, as Ol' Wet-Eyes himself, Sam Altman, admitted last year. So, while the Anthropic lawsuit settlement is better than nothing, what if we're really just accepting an outcome that allows GenAI to steal first, pay TINY portions in restitution later, and do this over and over again.

Here is what I mean:

The only way to stop this mess is to pass meaningful legislative and regulatory action. The courts are here, yes, to provide restitution for harms done, but they're not meant to make far-reaching policy that will put the theft of intellectual property in true check. I know you're thinking "Good luck on that one, Charlotte!" to which I respond, "Fair point." Hopefully Europe and the more economically-powerful American states can create enough restriction to make the ongoing piracy painful enough. Fingers crossed!

IN ANY CASE, the settlement deal is in the works so: don't give up your chance at the dough! You might as well check to see if you're included (and, even if you don't find your writing immediately, if you have a copyright, you can try to get yourself added)! The claim form is VERY easy to fill out! Sorry for all the exclamation marks! Also, make sure you're filling it out on the right website.

And there is MORE by way of update in the GenAI litigation space: because a judge just ruled that George R.R. Martin and other giants of authorship can move forward with their litigation to sue OpenAI for copyright infringement. 😈. You can bet I'll keep my eye on it, reporting back in the future. Maybe if Disney and George R.R. go ballistic, that rising tide will lift our boats too.

Book Reviews!

I didn't go out of my way to select dark and spooky titles this past October per se, but they turned out nonetheless. Some surprised me with real squickiness! Probably driven by Bookstagram influencing, I won't lie, but I'm OK with it because all-in-all, I do feel like I had a solid reading month.

Alchemised, by SenLinYu
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre & Vibes: Dystopian Romance
Super Short Synopsis: Dramione fan fiction 'Manacled', except revised to remove Harry Potter IP.

Review: Alchemised was a SOLID effort, and this woman deserved to get paid for writing 'Manacled'—which is, in my humble opinion, one of the better books written in the 21st century. I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you want to read something heart-rending, this is it.

But honestly, I would read 'Manacled' if you're able to get hold of it. It's longer. It's not, like, 'trad-pub' slick or whatever, but it's just so good. Still, if you want to read a physical copy, Alchemised is going to get you 95% of the way there.

The Eyes Are The Best Part, by Monika Kim
Rating: 4/5
Genre & Vibes: Body Horror + Good For Her
Squick Factor: 3.5/5
Super Short Synopsis: A young Korean woman deals with classic campus sexual harassment. Her mom gets a new boyfriend. She ate a fish eye and...liked it? Uh oh. Shenanigans ensue.

Review: I love a good female rage story—living vicariously through a fictional character is very cathartic for me, especially in these harrowing times. So much so, I'm writing my own novel to get even closer to the source, as we follow Celeste who is not going to take violence lying down.

In Eyes, Ji-won is flailing about a bit, trying to find her place in life. When an unfortunate encounter forces her hand, she decides to take her fate into that hand as well as the other. Maybe into her mouth too, eeeeek.

The Eyes Are The Best Part is for horror lovers. You'll need a strong stomach. But know that it's VERY good; so if you enjoy watching young woman exact their sweet, sweet revenge, get it from your library like right now.

Bloom, by Delilah S. Dawson
Rating: 4/5
Genre & Vibes: Girl Horror
Squick Factor: 4/5
Super Short Synopsis: A woman goes to a farmer's market and falls head over heels in luuurrrv with a beautiful farmer. She goes to the farmer's house, who shows some signs of being a real weirdo. Are we seeing red flags or quirks? Shenanigans ensue.

Review: Bloom is a nice, quick read (a novella) and also for lovers of horror, I think. There are bad guys in this (bc of course there are), but a couple of twists will knock your socks off and make you wonder if your instincts are any good.

Delilah Dawson, the author, is LEGIT, by the way. Bloom was my first time reading her, and I've already ordered the catalogue. Excellent characterization, excellent tension, and...uh...let's say, 'creative' horror visuals.

Mate (Bride # 2), by Ali Hazelwood
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre & Vibes: Romantasy
Super Short Synopsis: A half-werewolf (who shouldn't exist, according to existing understanding) finds out she's mated to a full-werewolf, who is smoking hot. Shenanigans ensue.

Review: Ali Hazelwood is just a good writer, so even though this isn't my favorite genre, she always delights me. I thought Bride was fun and creative, and so was Mate! It's a nice, quick read—a solid choice as a palette cleanser if you're reading the wacky stuff I did in October.

We Love You Bunny (Bunny #2), by Mona Awad
Rating: 5000/5
Genre & Vibes: Dark Speculative Literary Fiction
Squick Factor: 1/5
Super Short Synopsis: Sam, protagonist of Bunny, published the story of Bunny, and the Bunny girls are madddd. We hear their version of events from their four respective voices (and sometimes all in one, as a 'we' chorus). We find out the backstory of the original Creation. Shenanigans ensue.

Review: I've had to delete so many drafts of this review because I sound manic. So much gushing. OK. Trying to hold it together.

I am obsessed with this book, the previous, and all of Mona Awad's books. I am trying not to be obsessed with Mona Awad herself because that is creepy—but I'll freely admit, it's been difficult.

I love problematic women in fiction. I like when weird, unexplainable, surrealistic happenings in fiction, especially when those events are cabined in by a clear and interesting narrative arc. Bunny and We Love You, Bunny are like the books that my soul would make it if had full, unencumbered access to my hands. Not JUST because of the very strange and off-kilter protagonists, and the wacky speculative stuff going down; but because of the prose, the ability to change voice in the narrative so seamlessly, the absolute f*cking HI-LAR-IOUS (and heartrending!) way of utilizing those voices. Oh and the beautifully-crafted digs at the world of creative writing (so, so funny, and so spot on). The creativity in the character development and the weirdo plot! Crap. I'm gushing again.

I am obssessssssedddd and I highly recommend listening to all of Mona Awad's books. The woman who reads for her—Sophie Amoss—is one of the best audiobook readers I've ever heard. One of my moonshot dreams is that I'll actually be able to publish What The Body Wants one day and Sophie will record it!

The Invocations, by Krystal Sutherland
Rating: 4/5
Genre & Vibes: Girl Horror
Squick Factor: 2.5/5
Super Short Synopsis: A young spellwriter hides amongst the campus youth. A teenage girl yearns to reanimate her dead sister's corpse. A wealthy young heiress searches to remove a poorly-applied curse. Oh and then of course the patriarchy is full of witch hunters because of course they are! Shenanigans ensue.

Review: The Invocations is a romp; a tad on the bloody, squicky side (so many fluids...), but ultimately this story is about three tough chicks who aren't going to be hunted, or let any other women be hunted either. As is often the case, in both fiction and real life, the rich people in this novel are behaving very badly. The relationship forged between the girls is gratifying, the tension is high, and dang it if I don't just love witchy stuff. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I thought Krystal Sutherland's House of Hollow was killer, and so is The Invocations.

Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Dark Literary Fiction/LOL wut?
Squick Factor: 2/5
Super Short Synopsis: A kind-of mean and very bizarre young woman lives with her alcoholic father (but so is she, probably), and hates him and herself. She works at a prison for boys in the 1960s. A beautiful, enigmatic woman arrives to work there too. Shenanigans ensue.

Review: Unlike everybody trying to be cool on BookTok, I did not enjoy My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It's not because I don't enjoy unlikable or problematic female characters (this ought to be obvious by now)—I actually just don't like unlikable characters when their chief complaint is being rich (yawwwwwn). So, I stayed away from Ottessa, despite everyone telling me that was a poor decision.

It was. Fortunately for me, I was assigned to read the first chapter of Eileen for one of my many online writing workshops, and it intrigued me because the writing was damn near incredible. Then a friend in the class suggested I give the novel a try (she had a similar dislike of My Year) and since this friend has never steered me wrong, I picked up Eileen.

I listened to the audiobook and it was so good. Wow. Ottessa is extremely competent at her craft. The tension was all there, but I just felt like I lived in Eileen's head (not a pleasant place to be, but a seriously interesting one). But the escalating plot, the TWISTS? Whoa.

Content warning: the book deals with some difficult subjects, such as child sexual abuse. There is also, like, a fair bit of poop talk (and maybe worse, barf talk, because of the aforementioned alcoholism). Sometimes I'd be driving to work in the morning and be like, BLECKOHGODDSTOP. But it works with the narrative and direction of the novel; nothing felt ham-fisted or gratuitous.

I think Eileen is going to be studied for years to come, and so I recommend going ahead and getting on the bandwagon.

Thank you so much for reading. I have no idea what I'm going to talk about next time, but it'll be a little zippy and a lotta ranty.

Have a great week, and read banned books.

ILYSM,
Charlotte
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