紐時賞析／作家出版社爭AI版權和解金

Big A.I. Payout Sets Publishers Against Authors

作家出版社爭AI版權和解金

The sum is gargantuan: $1.5 billion.

最後金額相當驚人：15億美元。

But as thousands of authors wait for their cut of the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history from Anthropic, the tech giant that used pirated books to train its artificial intelligence chatbot, some are accusing the publishers of their books of trying to squeeze them out of a percentage of the payout.

然而，數以千計的作者正等待從這筆美國史上最大規模的著作權和解案中分得賠償金之際，有些人卻指控自己的出版社，企圖瓜分原本應由作者取得的一部分款項。這起和解案的被告是科技巨頭Anthropic，該公司曾利用盜版書籍訓練其人工智慧聊天機器人。

The haggling is coming into plain view as a settlement administrator attempts to clear up who owns the rights to some of the more than 482,000 books covered by the agreement in the class-action case, which was approved in July by a judge in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.

這場利益之爭正在浮上檯面。這起集體訴訟案的和解協議於今年7月獲加州北區聯邦地方法院法官批准，涵蓋超過48萬2000本書。如今，和解管理人正試圖釐清其中部分作品的權利究竟屬於誰。

For many of those titles, ownership is undisputed, but on repeated occasions, authors and publishers have staked competing claims with the settlement administrator, which began recently informing them of those discrepancies, said Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, a professional association that says it has more than 18,000 members.

作家協會執行長拉森伯格表示，多數作品的權利歸屬並無爭議，但作者與出版社多次向和解管理人提出彼此衝突的權利主張，管理人最近已開始通知相關各方這些歧異。作家協會是一個專業組織，自稱擁有超過1萬8000名會員。

In an interview Thursday, Rasenberger said the settlement process was ripe for such misunderstandings.

拉森伯格9月3日受訪時表示，這套和解程序本來就很容易出現這類誤會。

“My big fear when this was all set up is that not all publishers keep great records of what books they’ve reverted rights to,” Rasenberger said. “And so you know, they should be taking it off their catalog.”

她說：「當初這套和解機制建立時，我最擔心的就是，有些出版社可能根本沒有好好保存紀錄，不清楚哪些書的權利已經歸還作者。既然權利已經歸還，就應該把那些書從自己的目錄中移除出來。」

Rasenberger said she did not believe that publishers were acting in bad faith.

拉森伯格表示，她不認為出版社是出於惡意。

“I don’t see this as a grab by the publishers,” she said, adding, “I don’t think they’re specifically trying to screw any author over.”

她說：「我不認為出版社是在趁機搶這筆錢。我也不認為他們是刻意想坑任何作者」。

Authors could receive up to $3,000 for each one of their books that a judge ruled last year were illegally downloaded and stored by Anthropic in the development of its online chatbot Claude.

根據法官去年的判決，Anthropic在開發線上聊天機器人Claude期間，曾非法下載並儲存這些書籍。每一本遭非法下載的作品，作者最高可獲3000美元賠償。

But they must split the proceeds with publishers they granted book rights to and with co-authors, according to the Authors Guild, a trade group.

不過，作家協會表示，作者必須與取得相關書籍權利的出版社，以及共同作者分配這筆賠償金。

Rasenberger said the percentages were determined by a class-action council that sought input from the guild and publishers.

拉森伯格說，分配比例是由一個集體訴訟委員會決定，該委員會曾徵詢作家協會與出版社的意見。

Anthropic referred to a statement in May by Aparna Sridhar, the company’s deputy general counsel, as the settlement was going through final approval.

Anthropic則援引該公司副總法律顧問斯里達爾今年5月的聲明回應；當時這項和解協議正進入最終批准程序。

“We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close,” the statement said.

聲明說：「我們很高興，這項和解涵蓋的作者與出版社已有超過91%提出申請，領取他們應得的款項。我們也期待這起案件能夠告一段落」。

文／Neil Vigdor，譯／國際中心

說文解字看新聞

【張佑生】

徐志摩的名言「數大便是美」，一提到AI，直接聯想也是天文數字的金額，報導開頭就用The sum is gargantuan 形容15億美元的和解金，gargantuan有「大到超乎尋常尺度」的感覺：Video of flooding in the area shows a gargantuan wave rolling across vehicles, structures and fleeing people.

這個字彙源自於16世紀法國作家拉伯雷(François Rabelais)筆下的巨人Gargantua...a gargantuan corruption scandal.

動詞片語squeeze something out of somebody放進利益分配語境後，有「強分一杯羹」的味道，儘管對方並不願意，字面的「把作者擠出百分比」宜解為「瓜分原本應由作者取得的一部分款項」：These big stores have squeezed out a lot of the smaller locally owned shops.

The haggling is coming into plain view裡面的haggling是討價還價：tourists haggling over the price of souvenirs，對象是人介係詞用with：Ted was haggling with the street vendors.而plain view或 plain sight原本是「清楚可見」，但不是說真的有人看見「討價還價」，而是指原本在幕後進行的利益角力浮上檯面。