Dario Amodei · Anthropic · California · Claude · Axios
Music publishers sue Anthropic, allege "blantant theft" of copyrighted music
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Some of the world's largest music publishers filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Anthropic late Friday night, alleging "one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.
Key facts
- Units of Sony Music and Warner Music filed the suit in federal court in northern California late Friday night, naming Anthropic, CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants
- Thought bubble from Axios' Sara Fischer: The music's copyright system is structurally complicated, which can expose AI companies to multiple lawsuits for the same song
- The Sony/Warner lawsuit is notable because it's broad
- This suit is not the first time Anthropic has been accused of piracy to train its models
Summary
The suit is the opening salvo in what is now likely to be a yearslong fight over music, AI, and how intellectual property is protected in a new era of technology. Units of Sony Music and Warner Music filed the suit in federal court in northern California late Friday night, naming Anthropic, CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants. It alleges Anthropic unlawfully trained its models off "tens of thousands" of music publishers' copyrighted compositions, whereas other lawsuits have focused on a narrower set of works. BMG's lawsuit against Anthropic, for example, claims infringement against 493 compositions.