Sony, Warner Music sue Anthropic over songs used in AI training
Sony Music and Warner Music have filed a lawsuit against AI company Anthropic, alleging the unauthorized use of copyrighted lyrics and sheet music to train its Claude AI models. This case adds to a growing list of legal challenges from creative industries against AI developers over intellectual property rights.
Why it matters
This litigation is central to defining the legal boundaries of fair use in training generative AI models on copyrighted creative works.
The music publishing branches of Sony Music and Warner Music 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 complaint, filed on Friday, that Anthropic pirated hundreds of song lyrics and sheet music from The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson and hundreds of other artists to train Claude to respond to human prompts.
The lawsuit is the latest in a wave of cases brought against tech companies by copyright owners including authors, publishers, music labels and news outlets over the use of their work to train AI systems. Universal Music Group sued Anthropic in 2023 and earlier this year over the alleged use of copyrighted song lyrics in AI training, in lawsuits that are ongoing.
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