Music Publishers Sue Anthropic for Billions

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell filed a copyright suit against Anthropic on Aug 28.

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music filed suit against Anthropic in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the Claude maker of copyright infringement (Music Business Worldwide, The Verge). The complaint names co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann as individual defendants (MBW, BI). All three publishing arms of the majors are now litigating against Anthropic, joining Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord, ABKCO, BMG, and Round Hill Music (MBW).

Business Insider reports the suit comes just a year after Anthropic agreed to pay authors over $1.5 billion to settle a class action over pirated works. Music Business Worldwide quotes the complaint calling that payout 'just the cost of doing business' given a reported $2-trillion valuation ahead of a projected October IPO.

According to the complaint cited by Music Business Worldwide, Anthropic employees torrented millions of pirated books from Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror, scraped lyrics from licensed sites Musixmatch and LyricFind, ran 'destructive scanning' on second-hand books, and used Common Crawl, The Pile, and Books3. Internal material from Bartz v. Anthropic includes Mann calling LibGen 'sketchy AF.' Named songs include 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough,' 'Eye of the Tiger,' and 'Paper Rings.'

Sony and Warner are seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work willfully infringed, plus up to $25,000 per removal of copyright management information (MBW, BI). Business Insider notes the complaint argues Claude's ability to output AI-generated lyrics could compete directly with human-made songs. The Verge reports the total exposure could reach several billion dollars if courts award maximum damages.

The publishers have demanded a jury trial, are represented by Oppenheim + Zebrak LLP (counsel on the existing UMG/Concord/ABKCO case) and Pryor Cashman LLP (MBW). They are demanding destruction of infringing copies and a full account of Claude's training data (MBW). The suit brings four counts: direct and contributory infringement by torrenting, direct infringement, and removal of copyright management information (MBW). The Verge reports Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and this case will likely move alongside the existing wave of publisher and author suits against the company.