Sony and Warner Sue Anthropic for Billions Over Alleged Mass Copyright Infringement in AI Training
18 Sources
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Zlibrary my beloved": Anthropic staff chats extolling piracy cited in Sony suit
Some of the world's leading music publishers think that Anthropic got off too light in a historic settlement where the Claude maker paid authors $1.5 billion after admitting to pirating more than 7 million books to train AI. "$1.5 billion is obviously not a large enough settlement to deter
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Sony Music, Warner sue Anthropic, alleging a "brazen campaign" of intellectual property theft
Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell and numerous other music publishers have sued Anthropic and co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann, alleging the AI lab conducted a "brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works." The lawsuit, which was filed late
[3]
Anthropic Hit With New Copyright Lawsuit From Sony, Warner
Copyright lawsuits aimed at AI firms are nothing new, with seemingly countless publishers currently locking horns with companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. So far, Claude-maker Anthropic is the AI giant that has been hit the hardest in terms of real-world payouts. In September 2025, Anthropic
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Sony, Warner Music sue Anthropic over songs used in AI training
Aug 31 (Reuters) - The music publishing branches of Sony Music (6758.T), opens new tab and Warner Music (WMG.O), opens new tab have sued Anthropic in California federal court for allegedly misusing their copyrighted song compositions to train its Claude AI models. Sony and Warner said in the
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Sony and Warner sue Anthropic for 'blatant violation' of copyright law - Engadget
The two music publishing groups claim thousands of instances of copyright infringement. Two major music publishing groups have jointly filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing the company of "one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history." Sony Music
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Sony Music and Warner Chappell sue Anthropic over song lyrics in Claude's training data
The publishers allege a brazen campaign of torrenting through the same pirate archives behind Anthropic's $1.5B author settlement, while Munich has held that memorising lyrics inside a model is reproduction and the mining exception does not cover it Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have
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Anthropic sued over alleged theft of 'tens of thousands' of songs
AI company faces multi-billion dollar lawsuit over misuse of copyrighted songs to train Claude models All AI wants for Christmas is a vast back catalogue of songs without paying for it, according to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the startup behind the Claude chatbot. Sony Music Publishing
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Sony Music, Warner sue Anthropic, alleging copyright infringement
Sony Music and Warner just filed a lawsuit alleging that Anthropic developed Claude models using stolen music. Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Music giants Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have just filed a potentially multibillion-dollar lawsuit
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Music publishers sue Anthropic, allege "blantant theft" of copyrighted music
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
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The Music Industry's New Lawsuit Against Anthropic Should Have Dario Amodei Shivering With Fear
Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Dario Amodei's Anthropic is facing yet another massive legal challenge. Sony Music and Warner, both juggernauts in the music publishing industry, filed a major lawsuit against the AI company late Friday night, accusing it of "one
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Anthropic Sued by Sony and Warner, Alleging AI Music Theft
One of the biggest (and most understandable) complaints that we've seen about generative AI is that since it's trained on actual human creations, there's a large grey area regarding the legalities of content made from such software. With that in mind, music publishers Sony Music and Warner Chappell
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Sony Music, Warner Chappell Accuse Anthropic of Intellectual Property Theft
Anthropic allegedly used illegal copies of music publishers' works Sony Music and Warner Chappell have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in the US, accusing the company of using copyrighted material without permission. Anthropic co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann are named as individual
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Sony Music & Warner Chappell sue Anthropic - Explained | TechPulse
Major legal drama is rocking the tech world. Sony Music and Warner Chappell are officially suing AI giant Anthropic over allegations of mass copyright infringement involving tens of thousands of iconic songs.The lawsuit claims Anthropic scraped and trained its Claude AI models on massive hits
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Sony Music, Warner Chappell Sue Anthropic Over Copyright Claims - Warner Music Gr (NASDAQ:WMG)
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music, a unit of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG), sued AI startup Anthropic on Friday in a Northern California federal court. The complaint also names co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann. The publishers accuse Anthropic of "illegally
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Sony Music, Warner Chappell, others sue Anthropic over copyright infringement
Music publishers including Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have sued Anthropic, alleging the AI company illegally used copyrighted songs to train Claude. The publishers are seeking damages of up to $150,000 per work, along with other remedies. Anthropic has rejected the allegations
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Anthropic Accused of Stealing Thousands of Songs in Music Label Suit | PYMNTS.com
Sony Music, Warner Chappell Music and several other labels filed a federal lawsuit Friday (Aug. 28) alleging that the Claude maker improperly used "thousands upon thousands" of their songs to train the AI model. "Defendants can no longer hide their extraordinary theft, and their mass infringement
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Anthropic Sued Over Copyrighted Songs: Sony, Warner Seek Damages
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music sued Anthropic on August 28 over alleged mass copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in Northern California, accused Anthropic, Dario Amodei, and cofounder Benjamin Mann of using copyrighted music without permission. The publishers mentioned that
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Anthropic sued by Sony and Warner: Claude faces lyrics piracy claims
Anthropic is now facing a federal lawsuit from Sony Music, Warner Music, and a group of music publishers. In a complaint filed in the Northern District of California, they argue that Anthropic copied tens of thousands of copyrighted songs to train Claude. The stakes are obvious. The filing calls
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Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging the AI company engaged in a brazen campaign of illegally torrenting thousands of copyrighted musical works to train Claude. The publishers seek up to $150,000 per infringed work, potentially totaling billions in damages.
Music Publishers Launch Major Copyright Infringement Case Against Anthropic
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have filed a federal lawsuit against Anthropic and its co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann, accusing the AI company of conducting what they call "one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history."
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Filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the complaint alleges that Anthropic engaged in a brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale to develop its Claude AI model.4
Source: The Next Web
Publishers Seek Up to $150,000 Per Infringed Work
The music publishers are seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each infringed copyright and $25,000 for each instance of Anthropic removing copyright management information.
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Given that the complaint alleges "thousands upon thousands" of copyrighted musical compositions were illegally harvested, the total damages could exceed billions of dollars.3
The lawsuit specifically mentions that Anthropic pirated song lyrics and sheet music from artists including The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson, and hundreds of others to train Claude to respond to human prompts.4
Internal Messages Reveal "Zlibrary My Beloved" Comments
The lawsuit reveals damaging internal communications from Anthropic staff that appear to celebrate piracy. According to the complaint, Anthropic's mass campaign of illegal torrenting began in July 2021 when co-founder Benjamin Mann personally used BitTorrent to download millions of pirated books from Library Genesis (LibGen).
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After the FBI shut down LibGen, Anthropic allegedly gained access to Z-Library through the Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi). Mann reportedly directed employees to torrent PiLiMi, messaging that it dropped "just in time!" An Anthropic staffer responded with "zlibrary my beloved," which publishers cite as proof the company extolled the use of piracy.1
Source: Futurism
Anthropic's $1.5 Billion Settlement Called Insufficient Deterrent
This lawsuit follows Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement in September 2025 with a group of authors who accused the company of pirating more than 7 million books for AI training purposes.
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The music publishers argue that this settlement was inadequate, stating that "$1.5 billion is obviously not a large enough settlement to deter infringing conduct by a company that has parlayed such mass infringement into a staggering $2-trillion-dollar valuation."1
They claim Anthropic "clearly considers that to be just the cost of doing business given that its entire business model continues to be built on copyright theft."3
Complex Training Methods Complicate Copyright Claims
Publishers acknowledge that Anthropic denies using torrented books to train commercial Claude AI models directly. However, they argue the company's statements depend on how "training" is defined.
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The complaint explains that Anthropic trained at least one commercially released Claude model using synthetic data created by a non-commercial AI model that was trained on text from LibGen and PiLiMi. Additionally, recently unsealed documents revealed that Anthropic continues using the LibGen dataset for guardrails, specifically to check if output text too closely matches source material.1
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Claude Allegedly Reproduces Lyrics and Generates Competing Works
The publishers claim that without an injunction ending improper AI training, Anthropic will continue violating music copyrights by reproducing song lyrics verbatim and generating "new" songs that mimic the heart of popular works.
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Sony and Warner allege that Anthropic used their copyrighted musical works to teach Claude to "generate vast quantities of purportedly 'new' AI-generated song lyrics, which compete with Music Publishers' legitimate copyrighted works as harmful market substitutes."4
For example, Anthropic may rely on songbooks to respond to prompts asking Claude to change Eminem lyrics into a song written in "Beyonce's style."1
Source: Ars Technica
Growing Wave of Copyright Litigation Against AI Companies
This lawsuit represents the latest in a wave of intellectual property theft cases brought against tech companies by copyright owners, including authors, publishers, music labels, and news outlets over the use of their work for AI training.
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Universal Music Group sued Anthropic in 2023 over alleged use of copyrighted song lyrics, with that case still ongoing and publishers now seeking more than $3 billion in damages as of January 2026.3
The publishers claim that through discovery, they will reveal the full extent of Anthropic's illegal scraping and downloading activities by examining torrent downloads from pirate libraries.1
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