Sony Music Publishing sues Anthropic for billions

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in the federal court for the Northern District of California. The publishers are seeking up to $150,000 per work and up to $25,000 per copyright infringement, citing a potential total in the billions. The complaint also targets co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann and outlines alleged methods of data acquisition. Anthropic recently settled another case for $1.5 billion.

Publishers Denounce Massive Appropriation and Cite Specific Titles

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell describe the allegations against Anthropic as one of the largest intellectual property thefts in history. According to the complaint, these practices were used to develop, exploit, and generate significant profits from the Claude series of AI models. The publishers claim that Anthropic extracted lyrics from sites like MusixMatch and LyricFind, which pay for licenses from labels. Among the songs cited as being included in the training data are "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough," "Livin’ on a Prayer," "September," "Hallelujah," and "Paper Rings." Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Up to $150,000 per Work and $25,000 per Removal of Mentions

The publishers are demanding up to $150,000 per protected work and up to $25,000 for each identifiable copyright data removal, targeting "tens of thousands" of works. If the court grants the maximum amounts, damages could reach several billion dollars. The complaint also names Anthropic co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann as individual defendants.

Alleged Book Downloads and Heavy Legal Context

The complaint alleges that Benjamin Mann downloaded over five million pirated books via BitTorrent, and that employees acquired at least two million additional works from Pirate Library Mirror. This lawsuit comes amid multiple litigations for Anthropic, which recently reached a $1.5 billion settlement with the publishing industry and is facing lawsuits from Universal Music Group, Concord, ABKCO, as well as separate actions from BMG and Round Hill Music. The complaint was filed in the federal court for the Northern District of California. A clarification from August 30 states that the complaint originates from Sony Music Publishing, which should not be confused with Sony Music Entertainment.