Music Publishers Sue Anthropic Over Claude Training

A group of music publishers led by Concord Music Group is suing Anthropic in California federal court, alleging the company trained its Claude AI model on copyrighted song lyrics. The next hearing is slated for Oct. 21, and arguments are set for this week. In a separate lawsuit, Concord alleges Anthropic used pirated copies of 20,517 music works accessed from torrent sites to train Claude.

Concord says Claude can produce lyrics similar to existing songs or generate songs with similar chord progressions. A court filing says that when a publisher investigator asked Claude for “a song about the death of Buddy Holly,” it generated a verbatim copy of the lyrics to “American Pie.” Concord also says Claude provides copyrighted lyrics on request, reducing revenue from websites that pay licensing fees to republish song lyrics; it argues that free AI responses deprive publishers of this revenue.

Anthropic argues that the fair use doctrine permits use of copyrighted material in some circumstances, including teaching or criticism, or when the material is substantially transformed. The company says Claude has “copyright-protective” features and that it is the user, not Anthropic, who makes a copy when Claude produces one in response to a user command. Anthropic recently settled a separate book publishers’ case for $1.5 billion. In that case, a judge found AI training on copyrighted material could qualify as fair use, but the books Anthropic initially used were pirated versions, a point that may matter in Concord’s separate suit.

Concord is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose for up to $150,000 per alleged copyright violation and another $25,000 for instances in which it says Claude removed copyright notices. It also seeks lost profits, an undisclosed amount it plans to document in court. On Sep. 30, the Third Circuit ruled against a fair use defense in a case brought by Thomson Reuters over AI company ROSS Intelligence’s use of 25,000 Westlaw headnotes to train its tool. The appeals court partly cited ROSS’s aim to compete with Westlaw. California falls under the Ninth Circuit, so that ruling does not bind the court hearing Concord’s case.

A group of music publishers led by Concord Music Group is suing Anthropic in California federal court, alleging the company trained its Claude AI model on copyrighted song lyrics. The next hearing is slated for Oct. 21, and arguments are set for this week. In a separate lawsuit, Concord alleges Anthropic used pirated copies of 20,517 music works accessed from torrent sites to train Claude.

Concord says Claude can produce lyrics similar to existing songs or generate songs with similar chord progressions. A court filing says that when a publisher investigator asked Claude for “a song about the death of Buddy Holly,” it generated a verbatim copy of the lyrics to “American Pie.” Concord also says Claude provides copyrighted lyrics on request, reducing revenue from websites that pay licensing fees to republish song lyrics; it argues that free AI responses deprive publishers of this revenue.

Anthropic argues that the fair use doctrine permits use of copyrighted material in some circumstances, including teaching or criticism, or when the material is substantially transformed. The company says Claude has “copyright-protective” features and that it is the user, not Anthropic, who makes a copy when Claude produces one in response to a user command. Anthropic recently settled a separate book publishers’ case for $1.5 billion. In that case, a judge found AI training on copyrighted material could qualify as fair use, but the books Anthropic initially used were pirated versions, a point that may matter in Concord’s separate suit.

Concord is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose for up to $150,000 per alleged copyright violation and another $25,000 for instances in which it says Claude removed copyright notices. It also seeks lost profits, an undisclosed amount it plans to document in court. On Sep. 30, the Third Circuit ruled against a fair use defense in a case brought by Thomson Reuters over AI company ROSS Intelligence’s use of 25,000 Westlaw headnotes to train its tool. The appeals court partly cited ROSS’s aim to compete with Westlaw. California falls under the Ninth Circuit, so that ruling does not bind the court hearing Concord’s case.