Key Takeaways
- Anthropic faces a federal lawsuit from Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music filed in Northern California on Friday
- The music publishers allege the company illegally obtained and used copyrighted song material to develop its Claude AI chatbot
- Affected compositions include iconic tracks like “Eye of the Tiger,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and Taylor Swift’s “Paper Rings”
- Publishers demand statutory damages reaching $150,000 for each infringed composition
- The AI company refutes these allegations and vows to mount a vigorous legal defense
Two major music publishing powerhouses, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music, have initiated legal proceedings against Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI assistant, claiming unauthorized exploitation of thousands of protected musical works in training their artificial intelligence systems.
Legal documents were submitted Friday to a federal courthouse in Northern California. The filing identifies Anthropic co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann as defendants alongside the corporation.
Details of the Infringement Allegations
According to the publishers, Anthropic engaged in a “brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale.” The legal complaint references numerous popular compositions, including “Eye of the Tiger,” Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” and Taylor Swift’s “Paper Rings.”
Additional tracks cited in the lawsuit include “Livin’ On a Prayer,” “September,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Ramblin’ Man,” and “Hallelujah.”
According to the filing, Anthropic obtained portions of this protected content from two unauthorized digital repositories: Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror. These platforms hosted literary works containing song lyrics and musical notation.
This allegation builds on a June 2025 judicial determination that confirmed Anthropic had acquired over 7 million unauthorized books from these identical sources. While a judge subsequently determined that utilizing copyrighted literature for AI training constituted fair use, Anthropic ultimately settled a separate class-action case brought by authors regarding pirated materials for more than $1.5 billion.
Publishers’ Demands and Concerns
Sony and Warner Chappell contend that Claude possesses the capability to replicate protected lyrics when responding to user queries. They express concern that this functionality could enable the AI system to substitute legitimate licensed lyric platforms and diminish the commercial value of original musical creations.
The publishers are requesting a jury trial and seeking statutory compensation of up to $150,000 for every musical composition allegedly misappropriated by Anthropic.
Anthropic has rejected these accusations. “We disagree with the publishers’ claims and we intend to defend ourselves robustly in court,” stated a company representative.
This lawsuit represents another chapter in Anthropic’s ongoing music copyright challenges. A 2023 legal action from Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO led to court-sanctioned guidelines mandating that Anthropic prevent Claude from generating copyrighted lyrics in its outputs.
Sony Music Publishing operates as a division of Sony Group Corp. Warner Chappell functions as a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Anthropic recently disclosed preliminary second-quarter revenue exceeding $11.5 billion, representing a more than 14-fold increase compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. The company has also achieved its first positive adjusted operating income as it contemplates a potential initial public offering.
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