Music Publishers Sue Anthropic Over Alleged AI Copyright Theft

The legal complaint seeks damages of up to $150,000 per work, alongside additional penalties for the alleged removal of copyright management information. If the court grants the maximum requested damages, the total liability could reach several billion dollars. Beyond targeting the entity, the suit names co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann as individual defendants, claiming they facilitated a campaign of illegal data acquisition.

The plaintiffs allege that Mann utilized BitTorrent to download over five million pirated books, while employees reportedly scraped at least two million more from the Pirate Library Mirror. The filing further asserts that Anthropic bypassed legitimate licensing channels by scraping lyrics from services like MusixMatch and LyricFind. The training data cited in the lawsuit includes iconic compositions such as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On a Prayer,” and Taylor Swift’s “Paper Rings.” This action adds to a growing wave of litigation against Anthropic from major industry players including Universal Music Group, Concord, and BMG, following a separate $1.5 billion settlement involving the publishing sector.