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FinanceSony Music, Warner Music sue Anthropic for mass copyright infringement over AI training
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Major music publishers, including units of Sony Music and Warner Music, filed a lawsuit against AI company Anthropic late Friday night, accusing it of massive copyright infringement. The suit, filed in federal court in northern California, alleges Anthropic unlawfully trained its AI models on 'tens of thousands' of copyrighted musical compositions without permission, calling it 'one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.' The plaintiffs seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages per infringed work. This is not Anthropic's first copyright dispute; in September 2025, it agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with authors and publishers. Anthropic stated it disagrees with the claims and will defend itself robustly. The lawsuit is expected to be a landmark case in the ongoing conflict between the music industry and AI companies over intellectual property rights.
Source report
Author: Ben Berkowitz Source: Axios
Some of the world's largest music publishers filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Anthropic late Friday night, alleging "one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history."
Why It Matters
The suit is the opening salvo in what is now likely to be a yearslong fight over music, AI, and how intellectual property is protected in a new era of technology.
Driving the News
Units of Sony Music and Warner Music filed the suit in federal court in northern California late Friday night, naming Anthropic, CEO Dario Amodei, and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants.
The Big Picture
The Sony/Warner lawsuit is notable because it is broad in scope:
- It alleges Anthropic unlawfully trained its models off "tens of thousands" of music publishers' copyrighted compositions, whereas other lawsuits have focused on a narrower set of works.
- BMG's lawsuit against Anthropic, for example, claims infringement against 493 compositions.
What They're Saying
"Defendants Anthropic and its founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann have conducted a brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale in order to develop, operate, and reap enormous profits from Anthropic's 'Claude' series of artificial intelligence ('AI') models," the plaintiffs write in the 48-page complaint.
They also claim that Anthropic pirated thousands of copyrighted musical works and ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages per infringed work.
Thought Bubble from Axios' Sara Fischer
The music copyright system is structurally complicated, which can expose AI companies to multiple lawsuits for the same song:
- One song can have several copyrighted components, such as the lyrics, sound recording, or composition, that can be split among different copyright holders, including artists, publishers, and labels.
- Commercially released songs that require individual copyrights give plaintiffs a strong case to make for statutory damages, which do not require a copyright holder to prove their financial losses in court.
Between the Lines
This suit is not the first time Anthropic has been accused of piracy to train its models. In September 2025, the company agreed to the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history, a $1.5 billion deal with authors and publishers.
Yes, But
The music industry is notorious for being litigious when it comes to copyright, as anyone who was around in the heyday of Napster and LimeWire can attest.
For the Record
"We disagree with the publishers' claims and we intend to defend ourselves robustly in court," Anthropic said in a statement.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information throughout.
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Source
Yahoo FinanceWestern
Part of this Story
Major Music Publishers Sue AI Company Anthropic Over Copyright Infringement