→ Publishers took the AI settlement money and didn’t pass it down

Ben Werdmuller spends most Fridays rounding up links that caught his eye at the intersection of technology, media and society. This week, the top slot went to the newsroom lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft, and to who actually ends up holding the money when those fights get settled.

Here’s what happened after Anthropic settled: a lot of publishers kept the money instead of passing it to authors, even where the rights had already reverted. So go dig out your contracts and work out who’s holding your rights today. Ben also points at Really Simple Licensing, an ASCAP-style standard for creative work that no major AI vendor has agreed to comply with yet.