Sony, Warner Sue Anthropic Over Alleged Music Copyright Theft

Major Labels Escalate Legal Battle Against Claude Maker

Sony Music, Warner Chappell Music, and several other record labels filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Anthropic, alleging the AI company improperly trained its Claude model on thousands of copyrighted songs without authorization. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, represents the latest escalation in an ongoing legal campaign by the music industry against the AI firm.

According to the complaint, Anthropic used "thousands upon thousands" of protected musical works to develop its AI capabilities. The labels characterized the alleged infringement as documented and extensive, citing a recent court description of Anthropic's actions as "straightforward piracy but at massive scale."

The lawsuit demands a jury trial and seeks statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work allegedly infringed willfully, plus up to $25,000 for each claimed removal or alteration of copyright management information. Music Business Worldwide first reported the filing.

Why It Matters

This lawsuit signals that all three major music publishers have now taken legal action against Anthropic, creating a unified front that could reshape how AI companies approach training data acquisition. The case arrives as courts nationwide struggle to establish consistent precedent on whether using copyrighted material for AI training constitutes fair use—a question with billions of dollars and the future of generative AI at stake.

Pattern of Music Industry Litigation

The current action follows multiple previous suits against Anthropic by music rights holders. Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO sued the company in October 2023 over approximately 500 songs, then filed a second suit earlier this year covering more than 20,000 works and seeking over $3 billion in damages.

BMG filed its own lawsuit in March involving 493 songs, while Round Hill Music sued earlier this month, according to the Music Business Worldwide report.

Anthropic told TechCrunch it disagrees with the publishers' claims and intends to mount a robust defense in court.

Recent Copyright Settlement Sets Precedent

Last month, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a copyright violation case brought by authors who accused the company of improperly using their works to train Claude. That settlement is believed to be the largest award in a U.S. copyright case of this nature.

Divided Judicial Landscape

U.S. courts have issued conflicting guidance on AI training and copyright law. U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco described AI training as "quintessentially transformative" and argued that copyright law aims to advance original works rather than shield authors from competition.

Days later, however, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, also in San Francisco, warned that widespread AI training on copyrighted material could undermine the economic incentives that drive human creative work.

These contradictory rulings underscore the unsettled legal terrain AI companies must navigate as they develop increasingly sophisticated models.

Details of the lawsuit were first reported by Music Business Worldwide.