Key facts
- Sony Music and Warner Music have sued Anthropic for alleged misuse of copyrighted song compositions.
- The lawsuit claims Anthropic used lyrics and sheet music from artists like The Beatles, Taylor Swift, and Michael Jackson to train its Claude AI models.
- The publishers allege the copyrighted materials were obtained through torrent downloads.
- Sony and Warner are seeking up to $150,000 per infringed copyright and a court order to prevent further use of their works.
- This is the latest in a series of lawsuits against AI companies by copyright holders.
Sony Music and Warner Music's publishing arms have filed a lawsuit against AI company Anthropic in a California federal court, alleging the misuse of copyrighted song compositions for training its Claude AI models. The complaint, filed on Friday, states that Anthropic illegally obtained hundreds of song lyrics and sheet music from artists including The Beatles, Taylor Swift, and Michael Jackson through torrent downloads.
The music publishers contend that Anthropic used these materials to train Claude to respond to prompts and generate new song lyrics that compete with legitimate copyrighted works, effectively acting as harmful market substitutes. They are seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each copyright infringement and a court order to prevent Anthropic from using their works.
This legal action is part of a broader trend of copyright holders suing technology companies over the use of their content in AI training. Universal Music Group filed a similar lawsuit against Anthropic in 2023, which is still ongoing. Anthropic previously settled a class-action lawsuit with a group of authors for $1.5 billion, a settlement the music publishers described as insufficient to deter future infringement given the company's valuation.