Anthropic Sued by Sony, Warner for Copyright Infringement

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music are suing Anthropic, alleging copyright infringement. The complaint claims Anthropic used copyrighted material to train its Claude models and in their responses. The lawsuit, filed in California, names Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as individual defendants. Publishers accuse Anthropic of scraping and downloading copyrighted material. They say the affected catalog includes tens of thousands of musical compositions, like "Eye of the Tiger" and Taylor Swift's "Paper Rings." The complaint also alleges Anthropic scraped lyrics from sites like MusixMatch. It claims Claude can produce verbatim or near-verbatim lyrics. Sony and Warner are seeking up to $150,000 for each willfully infringed work. Anthropic disputes these claims and plans to defend itself. This case is important for creators, rights-holders, and businesses using AI, as it tests how copyrighted creative work can be used commercially.