Sony Music Publishing and Warner Music Publishing have sued AI company Anthropic in a California federal court, accusing the company of using copyrighted songs and sheet music to train its Claude artificial intelligence models.
According to the complaint filed on Friday, the music publishers allege that Anthropic copied hundreds of copyrighted works without permission. The works reportedly include songs connected to major artists such as The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson.
Anthropic Accused of Copyright Infringement
Sony and Warner claim Anthropic obtained copyrighted lyrics and sheet music through torrent downloads and used them to train Claude. The publishers also allege that Claude can reproduce copyrighted song lyrics “verbatim” when users provide certain prompts.
The companies further argue that Anthropic’s AI-generated lyrics could compete with legitimate music publishing businesses by creating large amounts of AI-generated material based on copyrighted works.
In their complaint, Sony and Warner said Anthropic’s continued use of copyrighted material shows that the company considers copyright disputes to be a cost of doing business. They also pointed to Anthropic’s previous $1.5 billion copyright settlement with authors.
Anthropic, Sony Music and Warner Music did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Anthropic Faces Growing Copyright Pressure
The lawsuit adds to a growing number of copyright cases involving AI companies. Authors, publishers, music companies and news organizations have increasingly challenged the use of copyrighted material to train generative AI systems.
Universal Music Group and other music publishers previously sued Anthropic in 2023 over alleged copyright infringement involving song lyrics. That case remains ongoing.
Anthropic agreed last year to pay $1.5 billion to settle a separate class-action lawsuit brought by authors, highlighting the increasing legal costs facing AI companies over training data.
What Sony and Warner Want
Sony and Warner are seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each infringed copyright. They are also asking the court to prevent Anthropic from continuing to use their copyrighted works.
The case could become an important test for the AI industry, particularly over whether companies can use copyrighted music, lyrics and other creative works to train AI models without obtaining permission.
As AI companies continue expanding their training datasets, copyright holders are increasingly demanding licensing agreements, compensation and stronger protections for their intellectual property.
