>They don't need to negotiate with every single author individually.
Yeah they do. What do you think the employees of a publishing house do? They make deals, work with authors, and accept/reject pitches. They 100% need to make sure every work is under a negotiated contract.
>>johnny+(OP)
The publishers could license the works in bulk, without the need for Anthropic to deal with the individual authors. Both sides pointed this out.