Anthropic Hit With Over $1 Billion Lawsuit for Stealing Songs

Independent music publisher Round Hill has filed a lawsuit against AI companies Suno and Anthropic for alleged mass copyright infringement. Suno and Anthropic are accused of scraping hundreds of copyrighted songs without permission to train their AI models. This lawsuit is part of a growing number of copyright claims faced by both companies.

Suno is already being sued by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group for allegedly using copyrighted material to create AI-generated recordings. Anthropic, the creator of the Claude AI assistant, is facing lawsuits from Universal Music Publishing, ABCKO, Concord, and BMG for allegedly using copyrighted song lyrics to train its AI.

Round Hill, which controls copyrights to several well-known songs, including the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” the Kinks’ “Lola,” and Dio’s “Holy Diver,” has listed 500 songs that it alleges Suno and Anthropic infringed upon. However, Round Hill plans to potentially amend its lawsuit to include up to 10,000 or more musical compositions, with potential damages exceeding $1 billion.

Round Hill's attorney, Richard Busch, argues that the development of AI systems should not come at the expense of copyright holders and that claims based on faster AI development are becoming harder to justify given the companies' substantial valuations. Suno and Anthropic have not yet responded to requests for comment.