Sony Music, Warner sue Anthropic, alleging a “brazen campaign” of intellectual property theft
News Source
•Sat, 29 Aug 2026 18:41:59 +0000
📰 What Happened
Music publishers Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have sued the AI company Anthropic. They filed the lawsuit on Friday in a US federal court in California. The case also names Anthropic's co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann.
The publishers say Anthropic ran a brazen campaign of stealing copyrighted work. They accuse the company of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading thousands of books, including ones with lyrics and sheet music, to train its AI model Claude. Anthropic had not commented when the story was published.
🔍 The Backstory
This is not the first copyright lawsuit against Anthropic. The same lawyers also represent Concord and Universal Music Group in a case filed in January. They also led the Bartz case, where authors accused Anthropic of using their books to train Claude.
In that landmark case, a judge ordered Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion. The judge said using copyrighted works to train AI can be legal, but getting those works through piracy is not. The new lawsuit is broader, and it leans on that earlier ruling.
🎯 Why It Matters
Musicians, authors, and artists want to know if AI companies can use their work without paying. This case decides who gets paid for creative work in the AI age. The outcome will shape what AI can learn from and how creators earn a living.
Music publishers Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have sued the AI company Anthropic. They filed the lawsuit on Friday in a US federal court in California. The case also names Anthropic's co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann.
The publishers say Anthropic ran a brazen campaign of stealing copyrighted work. They accuse the company of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading thousands of books, including ones with lyrics and sheet music, to train its AI model Claude. Anthropic had not commented when the story was published.
This is not the first copyright lawsuit against Anthropic. The same lawyers also represent Concord and Universal Music Group in a case filed in January. They also led the Bartz case, where authors accused Anthropic of using their books to train Claude.
In that landmark case, a judge ordered Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion. The judge said using copyrighted works to train AI can be legal, but getting those works through piracy is not. The new lawsuit is broader, and it leans on that earlier ruling.
Musicians, authors, and artists want to know if AI companies can use their work without paying. This case decides who gets paid for creative work in the AI age. The outcome will shape what AI can learn from and how creators earn a living.