Anthropic fights music-biz attorney Donald Passman's bid to exit its $1.5B settlement

Anthropic is locking horns with Donald Passman, the Gang Tyre attorney who wrote the music-business bible, over his attempt to exit the company’s $1.5 billion author settlement. Legal filings shared with Digital Music News on July 14, 2026 show Anthropic opposing the request outright.

The fight sits to the side of Anthropic’s bigger lawsuits with music publishers, but it exposes how the company’s separate book settlement swept up people who never wanted in.

How Passman got into the settlement

The dispute runs through Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, a class action over the unauthorized use of books to train AI models. Anthropic announced a $1.5 billion settlement with authors in September 2025.

Passman’s book, All You Need to Know About the Music Business, was hoovered into that class. Simon & Schuster has sold more than 500,000 copies since the 1990s, which makes his individual claim far more valuable outside the class than as a share of it. He wants out.

What Anthropic argues

In its opposition to the exit request, Anthropic argued that Passman’s “excusable neglect” claim is legally groundless. The company said he is not an unsophisticated author but a world-class lawyer surrounded by legal experts, with every resource to monitor the widely publicized case.

Anthropic also pointed to the court-approved notice campaign, which it said hit a 91.3% claim rate and fully satisfied due process. The implicit charge is that Passman ignored the notice.

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Passman's excusable-neglect argument is legally groundless.

There’s a simpler question underneath the paperwork. If Anthropic put out that wide a notice, a plain opt-out would have been easier than filing to exit after the deadline. One reading is that Passman missed it. Another is that high-profile authors were never meant to notice the settlement until they were already inside it.

Why this matters beyond one book

Anthropic is fighting music publishers, including Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG/Concord, and ABKCO, over claims that Claude trained on copyrighted lyrics, with billions of dollars and a fair-use ruling ahead. Passman’s fight is smaller, but it tests the same pressure point: whether a class settlement can bind creators who say they never agreed to it.

For songwriters and authors watching the AI cases, the tell is in the mechanics. A 91.3% claim rate sounds like consent. Whether it counts as consent for a name like Passman is what the court decides next. The same company preparing to go public is arguing that a missed deadline is final.