Anthropic Faces Copyright Suit from Sony and Warner Over AI Training on Song Lyrics

Legal Action Targets Anthropic

According to НВ — Техно: A pair of major music publishers, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music, have launched a copyright suit against Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on the evening of August 28, alleges that the tech firm unlawfully used copyrighted song lyrics to train and run its AI model. The publishers are seeking up to $150,000 for each alleged infringement, which could add up to billions of dollars in total claims.

This legal battle is emblematic of the broader struggle between creators and AI firms over training data.

What the Complaint Alleges

The complaint names Anthropic's co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann. The publishers say Anthropic sourced lyrics from Musixmatch and LyricFind. The suit lists several well-known songs as examples, including:

• 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough'
• 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'
• 'Eye of the Tiger'
• 'Here Comes Santa Claus'
• 'Paper Rings'

This case is just one of several legal challenges facing Anthropic. In 2023, Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO filed a similar suit; in March 2026, BMG brought its own separate action. Independent publisher Round Hill Music also sued Anthropic this month. Before that, in the "Bartz v. Anthropic" case, authors accused the company of using pirated copies of thousands of books, leading to a $1.5 billion settlement in 2025 and the destruction of the pirated copies.

"This is about one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history," said Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music.

Anthropic has not yet commented on the new lawsuit. Meanwhile, The New York Times is also involved in litigation against OpenAI, Microsoft, and Perplexity over alleged reproduction of its protected content, though that case remains unresolved. The news was published on August 31 at 11:34.

The growing number of legal cases around Anthropic and other tech companies suggests that intellectual property protection will continue to be a central issue as AI evolves. This lawsuit could influence future regulations and industry practices regarding data used to train AI systems.

As the legal landscape around AI continues to evolve, Apple has also intensified its legal actions against OpenAI, highlighting the ongoing tensions between technology companies and content creators. This broader context underscores the significance of the current lawsuit against Anthropic, reflecting the growing concerns regarding intellectual property rights in the age of artificial intelligence.