Sony Music and Warner Music have sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in the United States, accusing it of illegally using thousands of copyrighted musical works to train its AI models
Sony Music and Warner Music have sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in the United States, accusing it of illegally using thousands of copyrighted musical works to train its AI models.
The lawsuit could become a major legal battle over how AI companies use copyrighted material to develop their systems.
According to an Axios report, the music publishers filed the case in federal court in Northern California late Friday, naming Anthropic, CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants. They have described the alleged copyright violations as among the largest and most serious instances of intellectual property theft.
The publishers claim Anthropic used “tens of thousands” of copyrighted musical compositions to train its AI models, making the case broader than several other copyright lawsuits currently facing the company.
Anthropic accused of large-scale piracy
In their 48-page complaint, the plaintiffs allege that Anthropic engaged in a large-scale campaign of “torrenting, scraping, and downloading” copyrighted works to develop and operate its Claude series of AI models.
The music publishers claim the company copied thousands of copyrighted works without permission and used them in the development of its technology. They are seeking damages that could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars for each work found to have been infringed.
The case stands out because of the number of works involved. For comparison, BMG’s separate lawsuit against Anthropic alleges infringement involving 493 musical compositions.
The latest case could therefore expose Anthropic to potentially significant financial liability if the court finds the company responsible for copyright infringement.
Why music copyright makes the case complicated
The lawsuit also highlights the complicated nature of music copyright. A single song can contain multiple separately protected elements, including its lyrics and musical composition, while the sound recording can have its own copyright.
These rights may also belong to different parties, including musicians, songwriters, music publishers and record labels. This means that a single piece of music could potentially lead to claims from multiple copyright holders.
Another issue is statutory damages. Copyright holders can seek such damages without necessarily having to prove the exact financial loss they suffered, potentially increasing the stakes for AI companies accused of infringement.
Anthropic has faced copyright battle before
The lawsuit is not Anthropic’s first major legal fight over the use of copyrighted material for AI training.
In September 2025, the company agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with authors and publishers, described as the largest copyright settlement in US history.
However, the music industry’s lawsuit marks a new front in the broader debate over whether AI companies can use copyrighted material to train their systems without obtaining permission or paying rights holders.
The music industry has a long history of aggressively defending its copyrights.
Anthropic has rejected the latest allegations and said it plans to fight the case.
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