Writer Beware

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The AALA Makes Significant Updates to Its Canon of Ethics

JUL 31, 2026July 31, 20265 COMMENTS

For the second time in four years, the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) has updated its Canon of Ethics.

The last time, in 2022, the major changes related to packaging and producer fees for clients' TV and film deals (with members prohibited from participating), and to the growing practice of agents doubling as paid editors. Where the old Canon included a blanket prohibition on paid editing, the update created guidelines designed to allow the practice but head off the more common abuses. Member agents were prohibited from making editing a condition of representation, and required to offer paid editing services only to writers who approached them for that specific purpose (i.e., no bait-and-switch conversion of prospective represntation clients to editing clients). And if they subsequently offered the editing client representation, they had to reimburse all editing fees.

The current update is more sweeping. Most of the revisions are focused on the rapidly-growing trend of agents offering paid services other than editing to clients and non-clients, and are intended to establish guardrails to prevent these new practices from being abused, while not constraining member agents' ability to run their businesses and make a living.

Anthropic Settlement Update: Final Settlement Approved

JUL 23, 2026July 23, 202612 COMMENTS

On Tuesday, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval to the historic class action settlement in the Bartz v Anthropic copyright infringement lawsuit.

At $1.5 billion, it's the largest recovery ever in a copyright infringement suit, penalizing Anthropic for downloading, storing, and copying pirated datasets consisting of millions of illegally uploaded books in order to use them for AI training. (If you need a refresher, my past blog posts include a general overview of the settlement and the issues surrounding it and an April update.)

Judge Martinez-Olguin's ruling can be seen here.

Anthropic Settlement Update: The Opt-Outs Strike Back

JUL 17, 2026July 22, 20268 COMMENTS

We're currently waiting for Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin to issue final approval of the historic settlement in the Bartz v, Anthropic copyright infringement lawsuit. (If you need a refresher, my past blog posts include a general overview of the settlement and an April update.)

One of the interesting outcomes--so far--has been that while participation by class members has been extraordinarily robust (91.3%, with claims filed for 440,490 of the 482,460 works on the elgible works list), the number of class members who opted out has been quite small--just 350, according to a motion for final approval filed by plaintiffs in March (the opt-out deadline was February 9).

Opting out preserved those individuals' right to sue Anthropic on their own. And indeed, in recent months, several lawsuits have been filed, representing approximately a third of the writers who opted out. Each suit is interesting in its own way.

AI SCAMS

The First Clue to an Email Scam May Be the Address

Header image: partial image of an iPhone screen showing the email symbol, a white envelope on a blue button (Credit: Brett Jordan / Unsplash.com)

JUN 30, 2026July 21, 202670 COMMENTS

I doubt that there will be anyone reading this article who hasn't been targeted by a writing scam. That's how prevalent and aggressive they are these days.

Fraudsters who prey on writers employ a variety of methods to recruit clients: advertising (especially on Facebook, which is awash in ads for scam publishing service providers), sponsored links on Google (plug "find a publisher" into Google, and the top results will be for scam or vanity publishers), social media activity (watch out for seemingly friendly DM contacts)--and, most often, direct solicitation via email and phone calls purporting to offer publishing or agenting or film adaptation services...and, increasingly, impersonating companies and professionals in those fields.

Real, reputable literary agents and publishers and film production people, by contrast, rarely reach out to writers directly. But while that's true 99% of the time, you can't say it never happens. And for writerly activities like conferences, or interview or lecture invites, direct contact is common. So how do you distinguish the rare genuine contact from a scam solicitation? Often, the first clue is the sender's email address.

GUEST POSTS

Guest Blog Post: Can a Flawed US Legal System Discourage Fraud? A Look at the PageTurner Scam Prosecution

Header image: touchscreen with law-related icons (gavel, court building, open book, etc.) with hand selecting scales of justice (Credit: mayam_studio / Shutterstock.com)

JUN 19, 2026July 21, 20269 COMMENTS

In December 2024, the FBI arrested the CEO, VP, and an associate of PageTurner Press and Media, one of the most prolific and predatory of the many Philippine publishing scams. The government determined that over the course of six years, PageTurner--which did business in the Philippines under the name Innocentrix--defrauded nearly 900 writers of more than $48 million.

The gears of US justice grind slowly (especially these days), but in early May, PageTurner CEO Michael Cris Traya Sordilla pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one of money laundering. Although each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the government's sentencing guidelines in Sordilla's plea agreement suggest he will serve much less time.

The plea agreement also requires Sordilla to pay millions of dollars in restitution to his victims. Will anyone ever receive those payments, though? Today's guest post by retired Professor of Economics Trent Bertrand takes a look at that question, using the PageTurner prosecution as a lens to examine how the prevalence of plea bargains in US criminal prosecutions often serves the needs of prosecutors and defense attorneys rather than the victims of all-too-common frauds. For Mr. Bertrand, the issue is not abstract, as you'll see from his bio at the bottom of this post.

Has the Anthropic Settlement Changed Everything?

Header image: Black ISBN bar code on a white background (credit: Janaka Dharmasena / Shutterstock.com)

MAY 22, 2026July 21, 202618 COMMENTS

Recent developments in the world of copyright have been making many writers rethink their attitudes toward copyright registration and reversion of publishing rights.

Because many artificial intelligence companies used pirated books to train their large language models, there are now a growing number of copyright infringement class action lawsuits against them. While it is still undetermined whether these companies’ use of the copyrighted material was fair use or not, it has become clear that the use of copyrighted material from pirate libraries is a no-no, especially when the method involves torrenting, which means the companies participated in redistributing the materials.

The first of these lawsuits, Anthropic v. Bartz, just held the final Fairness Hearing on a class action settlement and, although there were some minor factors which delayed Judge Martinez-Olguin’s approval, it looks as if the class action settlement will be approved and 1.5 billion dollars will eventually be paid out to claimants who met the definition of the class.