Sony Music, Warner Sue Anthropic Over Alleged Copyright Infringement in AI Training

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 Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was first reported by Music Business Worldwide. The publishers accuse Anthropic of "blatant theft" by using thousands of copyrighted works to train its AI model Claude. Anthropic could not be reached for comment prior to publication. TechCrunch will update this article if the company responds. This isn't the first intellectual property lawsuit Anthropic has faced. Some of the same lawyers behind this lawsuit also represent Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group in a case filed in January and led the Bartz v. Anthropic case, in which a group of authors accused Anthropic of using copyrighted works to train products like Claude. Anthropic was ordered to pay $1.5 billion in the landmark Bartz case after a judge ruled that while it was legal for the AI lab to use copyrighted works, it was not legal to acquire that content through piracy. While the cases make similar arguments, there are key differences. This latest lawsuit is particularly broad and builds off the other cases, including by accusing Anthropic of "flagrant piracy" through illegal torrenting to obtain millions of copies of books, including those that contain lyrics and sheet music.

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 Publishing and Warner Chappell Music filed the complaint, which can be seen in full thanks to Music Business Worldwide, on Friday and said that Anthropic was responsible for a "brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale" for the sake of training its Claude AI models. The two music publishers are seeking a jury trial, but also up to $150,000 for each infringed work and $25,000 for each instance of Anthropic removing copyright management information. That could amount to billions in damages, considering the complaint alleges that "thousands upon thousands of music publishers' copyrighted musical compositions," were illegally harvested to train Claude models. We reached out to Anthropic for comment on the lawsuit and will update the story when we hear back. Earlier this year, two other prominent music publishing companies sued Anthropic, accusing it of illegally downloading more than 20,000 copyrighted songs for AI training purposes. Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group were seeking more than $3 billion in damages with the lawsuit. Previously, Anthropic was hit with another copyright lawsuit, but from a group of authors who claimed that the company used pirated copies of their protected works to train its AI models. Anthropic ended up settling that case for a record-setting $1.5 billion.

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 Friday night, naming Anthropic, CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants. 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. 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: Anthropic was not immediately available to comment on the suit. Editor's note: This is a developing story.