Major Music Publishers Target Anthropic in Copyright Lawsuit Over Claude AI Training Data

TLDR

• Major music publishers Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music launched legal proceedings against Anthropic in Northern California federal court this past Friday
• The complaint alleges Anthropic unlawfully obtained and utilized protected musical compositions to develop its Claude AI platform
• Specific works cited include classics 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 violated composition
• Anthropic rejected the allegations, stating it plans to “defend ourselves robustly in court”

Two of the music industry’s most powerful publishing entities, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music, have initiated legal action against Anthropic, the artificial intelligence firm responsible for the Claude chatbot, claiming the company utilized thousands of protected musical works without authorization to develop its AI systems.

The legal complaint was submitted Friday to a Northern California federal courthouse. Anthropic co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann were identified as defendants in the case along with the company itself.

Details of the Infringement Allegations

According to the publishers, Anthropic executed a “brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale.” The legal filing identifies numerous iconic compositions such as “Eye of the Tiger,” Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Mariah Carey’s holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas is You,” and Taylor Swift’s “Paper Rings.”

Additional compositions mentioned in the lawsuit include “Livin’ On a Prayer,” “September,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Ramblin’ Man,” and “Hallelujah.”

The filing contends that Anthropic obtained portions of this content via two unauthorized digital repositories: Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror. These platforms hosted publications containing lyrical content and musical notation.

This allegation builds upon a June 2025 judicial determination that confirmed Anthropic had acquired over 7 million unauthorized books from these identical platforms. While a judge subsequently determined the utilization of protected books for training purposes constituted fair use, Anthropic ultimately paid more than $1.5 billion to resolve a separate class-action case brought by authors regarding pirated materials.

The Publishers’ Demands

Sony and Warner Chappell contend that Claude possesses the capability to generate protected lyrics when responding to user queries. They argue this functionality could enable the AI system to substitute for legitimate lyric licensing services and damage the marketplace for music created by human artists.

The publishers are requesting a jury trial and statutory compensation reaching $150,000 for every composition Anthropic purportedly utilized without permission.

Anthropic disputed the claims. “We disagree with the publishers’ claims and we intend to defend ourselves robustly in court,” a company representative stated.

This marks not the first occasion Anthropic has confronted music copyright challenges. A 2023 legal action initiated by Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO led to court-mandated restrictions preventing Anthropic from allowing Claude to generate protected lyrics in user interactions.

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 earnings exceeding $11.5 billion, representing growth of more than 14 times compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. The organization also achieved its inaugural positive adjusted operating income as it considers a potential IPO.