Music publishers sue Anthropic, allege "blantant theft" of copyrighted music
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." Why it matters: 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. Driving the…
Some of the biggest names in the music industry have filed a massive lawsuit against Anthropic, claiming the company engaged in a flagrant and widespread theft of copyrighted music. This legal action marks the beginning of what is expected to be a lengthy battle over intellectual property rights in the age of artificial intelligence.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in northern California, names Anthropic, its CEO Dario Amodei, and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants. Units of Sony Music and Warner Music are among the plaintiffs in the 48-page complaint.
According to the plaintiffs, Anthropic has been involved in a "brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale" to develop and operate its Claude series of AI models. The complaint specifically alleges that the company pirated thousands of musical works, demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for each infringed piece.
This is not the first time Anthropic has faced accusations of piracy for training its models. In September 2025, the company settled the largest copyright dispute in U.S. history, agreeing to pay $1.5 billion to authors and publishers. However, the music industry is known for its aggressive legal actions concerning copyright infringement, as evidenced by the company's agreement in the wake of the Napster and LimeWire controversies of the past.
Anthropic has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Written by urgent.news from Axios's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
