If you've written a book - any book - you might be owed money from the first major financial reckoning in the AI copyright wars.

A $1.5 billion settlement with AI companies has opened a claims process for authors whose work was used to train large language models without permission or compensation. According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, this covers a wide range of published authors, not just bestsellers.

The details are still emerging, but this marks a significant shift. For years, AI companies argued that scraping copyrighted material for training purposes fell under fair use. Authors argued that fair use doesn't mean free use. Courts are starting to agree with the authors.

Here's what makes this precedent-setting: it establishes that training data has value. AI companies built billion-dollar businesses by ingesting creative work without asking permission or sharing profits. This settlement acknowledges that's not sustainable - legally or ethically.

Of course, $1.5 billion sounds like a lot until you divide it among potentially millions of affected authors. Individual payments might be modest. But the principle matters more than the payout.

The AI industry has operated on the assumption that content is free raw material, that creators should feel honored to have their work "contribute to the advancement of technology." This settlement says: no, actually, you need to pay for what you use.

Authors who think they might qualify should watch for claims information. The settlement administrators will provide details about eligibility and the filing process.

This won't be the last AI copyright settlement - it's probably the first of many. Every creative industry is grappling with the same question: who owns the value created when AI is trained on human creativity?

For once, the answer isn't just "the tech companies."