Music publishers seek billions from Anthropic in copyright clash
Sony Music and Warner Chappell have filed a copyright lawsuit against AI company Anthropic, seeking up to $150,000 per infringed work and additional penalties for removal of copyright management information. The plaintiffs claim Anthropic used pirated books and scraped lyrics from licensed platforms, naming co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann as defendants. Damages could reach several billion dollars if the court awards the maximum amounts.
The lawsuit targets Anthropic's Claude AI models, with plaintiffs alleging the company built training datasets through unauthorized channels. The complaint specifically cites BitTorrent downloads of over five million pirated books and scraping of licensed lyric platforms, naming both the company and its co-founders as responsible parties.
This case follows a $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic reached with book publishers, and joins ongoing litigation from multiple music rights holders including Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO. Named songs in the complaint span several decades, from Marvin Gaye's 1967 duet to Taylor Swift's recent work.
This case could reshape how AI companies source training data, potentially forcing greater transparency about data acquisition practices. If the court awards maximum damages, the financial burden may deter