Tag Archives: artificial intelligence

The Lawyers Behind the $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Slash their Fee Bid after Pushback

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Anthropic

In December 2025, the lawyers behind the $1.5 billion settlement requested $302 million in fees and expenses from the court for their work during the lawsuit against Anthropic for use of copywritten material to train its AI model.

The lawsuit was over the artificial intelligence platform Anthropic’s use of copywritten material. The settlement includes $1.5 billion, about $3,000 for each instance of use. If an author has 3 books that were used by Anthropic, they’d receive $9,000 as an example.

The plaintiff’s lawyers asked a federal judge for $300 million in attorney fees plus expenses of about $1.97 million and $17 million reserve fund for future expenses in December 2025. That’s around 20% of the settlement. There was also a request of $50,000 for each of the three named plaintiffs in the case. $75 million of the $300 million would have gone to three firms, Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard, Edelson, and Oppenheim + Zebrak, while the rest would have gone to Susman and Lieff Cabraser.

That amount received pushback and was objected to and that request has been lowered.

Law firms Susman Godfrey and Lieff Cabraser asked the federal court in San Francisco to award them 12.5% of the settlement fund, or $187.5 million.

The final approval of the settlement will be considered during an April 23 hearing. A preliminary approval happened in September 2025.

GlobalComix Closes a $13 million round and Acquires INKR raising Questions about its future and AI

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GlobalComix

On Thursday, GlobalComix in an interview with Rob Salkowitz at Forbes announced that it had received $13 million in new capital in a round led by SBI US Gateway Fund and Point72 Ventures. It had previously raised $6.5 million in 2023. They also announced the acquisition of digital manga platform INKR adding over 200,000 volumes of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean comics as well new technology the company brings, including AI translation lettering. Finally, Henrik Rydberg has been named CEO after having joined the company as a board member in January 2025.

We’ve been digging into the venture funding in the comic industry, a rather difficult task with just glimpses of information from various sources. Thankfully a release like this makes things a bit easier to dive in to examine a rather large investment in the industry.

The reality is, today’s venture capital and investment is quite different than a decade ago. AI funding has sucked up investments and focus with over 61% of global venture capital investment going towards it in 2025 (though some put the number at 50% or more). That’s up from an estimated 27.5% of funding in 2023. In other words, unless there’s some AI hook in your tech company, it’s much more difficult to get funding resulting in fewer investments and smaller amounts in non-AI related tech. It’s an issue that has been raised regularly in 2025 and 2026 by tech firms both in and out of the comic industry.

In total GlobalComix has received $19.7 million in total funding with $13 million of that coming this March. Point72 ventures was part of the Series A funding for the platform in 2023 along with another investor not listed by Crunchbase, a platform that tracks this information. That funding round involved $6.5 million. What’s intriguing is Crunchbase has its “Heat Score” and “Growth Score” both trending down for the digital comics platform.

Sensor Tower estimates GlobalComix with an install range on Android between 500,000 and 1 million, ranked #17 in “comics downloads” in the US. Apple’s install range isn’t listed but it’s estimated to be 30,000 downloads last month, ranked #19 in “Magazines & Newspapers – Downloads” and between the two Sensor Tower estimates a revenue of about $90,000 in the previous month. Add in a reported 2.2 million monthly web visits by Crunchbase and we get an idea of where the platform stands, though the data is questionable and flimsy. Marvel Unlimited, VIZ Manga, Tapas, K Manga, Crunchyroll, Shonen Jump, MANGA Plus, and Webtoon are examples of apps that rank higher for Google Play. Trends are really what matters here, not the snapshot.

But, when it comes to venture investment, one thing is always clear, they’re looking for return on their investment.

In the interview, Rydberg states that “growth continues to accelerate.”

GlobalComix, the company has seen month-over-month increases of 20% after adding top publishers DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Kodansha and Seven Seas to its lineup, and augmenting its subscription-based pricing model with a la carte sales.

The AI Question

When it comes to AI on the platform where does GlobalComix stand? Directly from their Support FAQ:

We allow AI comics to be uploaded at this time, although that may change in the future. We also reserve the right to remove AI content at our discretion.

There are a few key things to be aware of regarding AI content, and by uploading to GlobalComix, you agree to these:

You must disclose the use of AI, whether visual(Art) or written(Story), as part of the release upload process
AI content is not eligible for monetization at this time, including but not limited to GlobalComix Gold revenue and PDF sales
The donation button is disabled in releases utilizing AI Art
We take violations of this policy very seriously. Repeat infractions, particularly around disclosure, may result in actions taken against your creator profile and GlobalComix account.

GlobalComix already was friendly towards the use of AI in the creation of the comics on its platform, but with the acquisition of INKR, the company is diving further into the controversial technology:

Rydberg says the addition of INKR enables GlobalComix to implement a suite of technologies that he characterized as “Figma for comics”: collaborative, AI-assisted tools for translating, formatting and distributing IP globally, overcoming some of the cost and timing issues related to localization.

“AI as a technology gets a lot of attention,” said Rydberg. “We see creators as the very heart of storytelling. But the same way we use computers and software to paint, we want to extend tools to creators and translators to amplify what they’re doing, to make their lives easier and more efficient. We are not in the business of creating foundational models.”

Figma is a “collaborative interface design tool” described as a “web-based graphics editor software” and has dived into app development.

In the article, Rydberg leans into INKR as a “tool” to enable translators to replace text on the “page directly in the balloons and captions, without needing the artist involved.”

There’s been a lot of discussion of the use of AI for translation services, often rejected by fans and readers, receiving a very negative response. Like many industries, the implementation of AI in translation services is costing jobs and driving down salaries. Netflix has said it would use AI for subtitles resulting in boycotts. While this doesn’t sound like a complete replacement for manual labor, any mention of AI brings caution and skepticism in the creative field.

With the acquisition of INKR it’s clear that GlobalComix is focused on that global part not only expanding its offerings but leaning into AI to allow “simpler” translations of the comics hosted on its platform.

SBI US Gateway Fund and Point72 Ventures

Point72 Ventures isn’t new when it comes to investing in GlobalComix having previously done so. Point72 Ventures invests in artificial intelligence, enterprise software, financial services, and FinTech. Crunchbase reports 249 investments with a wide range of values in investment. AI music platforms, technology for the Department of War, video games, and more. Their investments have recently been AI heavy, but diverse in industries and technology focus.

SBI US Gateway Fund is described as a “venture fund that provides funding through investment to early-stage start-ups in US.” Their history is far shorting with just 6 investments beginning in 2023. Their $13 million in GlobalComix is in range with previous investment which range from $3.8 million to a high of $18 million. Their focus is all over with their earliest in Kite AI but from there expanding into IT consulting and healthcare.

While Point72 Ventures has history with GlobalComix, the addition of SBI is interesting as a recent newcomer.

Henrik Rydberg, the new CEO

In the announcement, Rydberg is named the new CEO with co-founder Christopher Carter remaining with the company leading innovation and technology development.

Rydberg has served on the board since January 2025 coming from a the world of startups such as Date Like Goblins, a spin on the dating app, as well as venture investment like Mach49. But, he does have experience in “user experience” as part of Shapeways that can help GlobalComix. A platform whose two top priorities are content and the user experience to consume it and post it, that experience and background could be handy.

Conclusion

GlobalComix has been invested in AI for quite some time now, and at least one major funder, Point72 Ventures, isn’t new. This announcement is an interesting infusion into the company that shows signs of a focus on growth and its investors see potential for it. There’s nothing really new in the vision or goal, they’ve just doubled/tripled down on it. But, with that investment comes a reminder that they are invested in and embrace AI, a technology which has numerous detractors within the comic industry and seen rejection by consumers. It’s easy to see this investment turn sour with such a high profile clear lean into AI.

Disney, Warner Bros., Universal and Midjourney Head to Judge Over Discovery Dispute

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In February, a plan was hashed out between Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, and Midjourney over discovery when it comes to their possible trial. Now, a dispute has arisen over discovery and the numerous parties need the judge to hash things out.

In June 2025, studios started to sue Midjourney. In multiple lawsuits, they claimed the AI platform was a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.” In November, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. consolidated their two cases into one. Their cases were similar and made similar claims against the tech company.

This case impacts the comics community as both Marvel (via Disney) and DC Comics (via Warner Bros.) are part of the plaintiffs and specifically mentioned in filings.

We haven’t see what the dispute is but will update this article with more details or a full report when a decision is made.

The date of the conference will take place on March 12.

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Update: San Diego Comic-Con Quietly Updates its Art Show AI Policy Reversing Course

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San Diego Comic-Con 2026 is gearing up and had a bit of a dust-up already when it comes to AI’s presence at this year’s convention. Policies and more were released concerning the art show at the convention, which initially allowed “material produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI).” As you can imagine, with a convention built on artists that went over exactly like a turd in a pool.

Less than 24 hours after the issue was raised, the convention quietly updated the policy reversing the decision:

(3) Material created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show. If there are questions, the Art Show Coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability.

We imagine extra scrutiny will be given towards every policy, presentation, exhibitor, when it comes to this year’s convention after this and speaking up can create positive outcomes.

Also, fuck AI.

Update: Glen Wooten, the individual in charge of the art show, gives much more context of the situation, explaining that the language has been that way for years but flew under the radar due to the fact the use of AI wasn’t as much of a thing. But, with the issue front and center, it needed to be updated instead of discouraging, outright banning its use. A check of the Wayback Machine has the language present in 2024.

Here’s an email exchange I had with Glen Wooten, the person in charge of SDCC’s Art Show. The previous language has been in place for a couple of years & was a compromise between himself & the higher ups. This whole ruckus convinced them that they needed more forceful language, so that’s great.

— Dane is home for a bit. (@monkeyminion.com) 2026-01-15T02:22:38.088Z

Google Responds to Disney’s Cease-and-Desist by Removing Content

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On the same day that Disney cut a billion dollar deal with OpenAI for the use of its intellectual property in SORA, news came out that Disney went after Google for the same thing. Disney accused Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale.” Much like its lawsuit against Midjourney, Disney accused Google of exploiting its characters and distributing infringing images and videos. They sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google to get them to stop the infringement.

In response, Google has removed dozens of AI-generated videos featuring Disney’s characters. In their letter, Disney flagged YouTube videos and demanded they were removed.

On Thursday, those links were working and now a message reads, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Disney.”

Google released a statement that it would work with Disney on the issue:

We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them,” the company said. “More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.

Disney also demanded Google implement safeguards to prevent AI tools from generating Disney-owned characters and cease using Disney’s characters to train its AI models.

Disney Sends a Cease-and-Desist to Google over Copyright Infringement and AI

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Mickey Mouse

On the same day that Disney cuts a billion dollar deal with OpenAI for the use of its intellectual property in SORA, news has come out that Disney is going after Google for the same thing.

Disney is accusing Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale.” Much like its lawsuit against Midjourney, Disney accuses Google of exploiting its characters and distributing infringing images and videos.

Disney has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google to get them to stop the alleged infringement.

Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights.

Google operates as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, rendering, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a mass scale. And compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services are branded with Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney.

Disney included examples of images it alleges infringes. Disney has also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta and Character.AI.

A Google spokesperson stated:

We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.

Disney has said they have attempted to engage with Google for months but Google hasn’t done anything to combat the issue and the infringement has increased over that time.

Disney is asking for them to cease “copying, publicly displaying, publicly performing, distributing, and creating derivative works of Disney’s copyrighted characters.” They also want the implementation of measures to prevent further infringement.

With a billion dollar investment in one company, a lawsuit against another, and threats against others, stories of what lead up to each will hopefully eventually come out. OpenAI isn’t profitable and burning through cash, needing billions in investments to keep up the charade. Compare that to Google’s profitability which allows it to reject deals like Disney may have been proposing behind the scenes which involves the use of generated video on Disney+. Google has Youtube, which has been named as part of the dissemination of the material. Google wouldn’t want to share the generated content, or give it to Disney exclusively stream, wanting it for their own platform. Same as Meta with Facebook. OpenAI has no platform currently to which to do that. It’s likely Disney is suing those that aren’t buying whatever Disney is really selling when it comes to AI.

Disney to Invest $1 Billion in OpenAI Allowing the Licensed Use of its Characters

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Mickey Mouse

Disney has partnered with OpenAI and invested $1 billion in the Sam Altman-run artificial intelligence company. With the deal, Disney is also licensing the use of its characters in AI video creation platform Sora. Users will now be able to “legally” use Disney’s characters from Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars.

The “shortform video creation” will be allowed on Disney+ as part of “fan-inspired Sora short form videos.” The licensed character product launches on Sora and ChatGPT in early 2026. Expect the slop to overrun everywhere even more soon after.

The three-year deal is a 180 with how the company is dealing with Midjourney, another artificial intelligence company. In June, Disney and Universal launched a lawsuit against Midjourney calling it a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.” Warner Bros. launched their own lawsuit and the two cases were consolidated in November. One wonders if there were negotiations between Disney and Midjourney that didn’t pan out which lead to the lawsuit.

Disney recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, alleging Google’s AI platforms have resulted in copyright infringement on a “massive scale.”

The move by Disney is another attempt to reach out to people “where they’re at,” following a $1.5 billion equity investment into Epic Games which brings Disney characters into Fortnite in a multiyear effort.

It’s also a major shift from Disney who is notoriously litigious in protecting its intellectual property. In one infamous case, Disney threated to sue a daycare center over murals that featured the likeness of their characters. Universal Studios and Hanna-Barbera stepped up to allow the use of their characters to prevent the legal action.

Unions were quick to condemn the deal saying it “sanctioned” the “theft of (their) work.”

The Writers Guild of America stated:

Disney’s announcement with OpenAI appears to sanction its theft of our work and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs.

And they’ll meet with Disney:

..to probe the terms of this deal, including the extent to which user-generated videos use the work of WGA members. We will continue to fight to protect our members’ creative and economic interests in the context of AI technology.

In a message to its members, the WGA has said:

Companies including OpenAI have stolen vast libraries of works owned by the studios and created by WGA members and Hollywood labor to train their artificial intelligence systems. We have repeatedly called for the studios to take legal action to defend the valuable intellectual property we help to create.

SAG-AFTRA said:

SAG-AFTRA will closely monitor the deal and its implementation to ensure compliance with our contracts and with applicable laws protecting image, voice and likeness,” the union said. “SAG-AFTRA members are very focused on the rapidly expanding use of intellectual property and individuals’ likenesses and voices by generative AI tools, and SAG-AFTRA remains vigilant about any such uses.

We acknowledge Disney’s and OpenAI’s independent outreaches to us on this matter and their assurances that they will meet their contractual and legal obligations to performers and continue to implement systems to ensure ethical and responsible use of this technology.

SAG-AFTRA has engaged in months of discussions with OpenAI about how to protect performers.

Anthropic Case Attorneys Request $302 million in Fees and Expenses

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Anthropic

We’ve previously covered the Anthropic class action case. The lawsuit was over the artificial intelligence platform Anthropic’s use of copywritten material. The settlement includes $1.5 billion, about $3,000 for each instance of use. If an author has 3 books that were used by Anthropic, they’d receive $9,000 as an example. The plaintiff’s lawyers have asked a federal judge for $300 million in attorney fees plus expenses of about $1.97 million and $17 million reserve fund for future expenses. That’s around 20% of the settlement. There’s also a request of $50,000 for each of the three named plaintiffs in the case.

The motion was filed and they attorneys claim their 20% is “markedly below” the 25% benchmark usually given. Class counsel from Susman Godfrey and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP would split 75% of the fees award.

The lawyers state they’ve spent more than 18,000 hours on the case which comes out to about $16,700 an hour.

Court Suggests Disney v. Midjourney Go to Mediation

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In June, Disney and Universal launched a lawsuit against the AI platform, Midjourney. In their filing, they called it a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” that generates “endless unauthorized copies.” In September, Warner Bros. Discovery, along with its various divisions, also sued Midjourney accusing it of producing, displaying, and distributing “unauthorized derivatives” of its intellectual property including Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and more. Those two separate lawsuits were combined in the beginning of November. Now, the judge has asked for the parties involved to mediate their dispute.

A request for mediation before a trial begins isn’t uncommon, as it can prevent a long, dragged out, and costly lawsuit by various parties. With the initial timelines proposed, this one would have gone into 2027. There’s also a possibility a settlement was close and didn’t need a long trial. This is a huge case with a lot riding on it, so the move is a little surprising.

This case is referred to private mediation. Counsel are directed to contact the private mediator of their choice to arrange a date and time for the mediation.

It asks for the mediation proceeding to be completed by August 19, 2026 with a notice of settlement or joint report by August 21, 2026 and then a status conference set for August 31, 2026.

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ClaimsHero Holdings Criticized by Judge for Encouraging Authors Opt-Out of Anthropic Settlement

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Anthropic

Arizona law firm ClaimsHero Holdings LLC was criticized by a judge for encouraging authors to opt-out of the $1.5 billion settlement by Anthropic. The settlement is an attempt to resolve copyright infringement claims. In September, U.S. District Judge William Alsup called the class-action settlement “fair” during a hearing setting the stage for notification of authors impacted and allowing them to file claims. Anthropic is accused of using millions of pirated of books to teach its AI assistant Claude to respond to prompts.

ClaimsHero Holdings calls itself a “consumer justice platform dedicated to helping individuals seek justice for various consumer harms.” On their page concerning Anthropic’s settlement, it states:

Anthropic has received preliminary court approval of a settlement to resolve claims that it illegally downloaded millions of pirated books from online datasets. That settlement provides for just $3,000 per copyright claimant. But the law provides for up to $150,000. Unless you take action, authors and rightsholders will be automatically included in that settlement. If you opt out of that settlement, you may be entitled to more compensation. Let us opt you out, represent you, and fight for more!

During a recent court proceeding, the judge criticized the firm accusing them of attempting to deceive individuals for a “quick buck,” scrutinizing their actions and raising concerns about the firm’s motives and practices.

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