Owners of the Elvis Presley catalogue, including Authentic Brands Group, filed a copyright Anthropic lawsuit against the maker of the Claude chatbot on Friday. The Next Web reports that the plaintiffs are seeking about $41.1m from the company, or $150,000 for each of 274 songs used to train the AI without a licence.
Key takeaways
- Authentic Brands Group and other music owners filed the suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
- The tracks named in the complaint include All Shook Up, Can't Help Falling in Love, Don't Be Cruel, and Return to Sender.
- Anthropic stated that it disagrees with the claims and intends to defend the case fully.
- Richard Busch is serving as the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in this latest legal action.
What does the copyright lawsuit allege about Claude?
The complaint states that the alleged copying occurred throughout the entire development of Claude and continues today as users prompt the chatbot for lyrics or new versions of tracks. According to The Next Web, the suit also accuses the company of bypassing measures protecting the music and removing copyright management information.
Plaintiffs argue that safety guardrails added after prior legal challenges do not work properly. The court filing points to an instance where Claude was asked to recreate specific songs for a modern audience, leading the chatbot to note that its outputs were reproducing copyrighted material rather than merely drawing inspiration from it.
What is the history of legal action over Elvis Presley music and AI?
Richard Busch represents the plaintiffs and also acts for Round Hill Music and Reservoir Media, both of which have taken legal action against Anthropic and Suno. Other major publishers like Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord, ABKCO, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, and BMG have launched separate copyright cases regarding training data.
Anthropic previously agreed to pay $1.5bn to settle a class action brought by authors over pirated books. In response to music disputes, the company has maintained that training its models on lyrics constitutes fair use under United States law.
What happens next for the company?
The legal challenge arrives just three days before Anthropic made public the S-1 filing for its initial public offering on Nasdaq. The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial, a permanent injunction, and a court order requiring the company to destroy all unauthorised copies of their works.
Frequently asked questions
Authentic Brands Group, Raleigh Music Publishing, several trusts, and at least one individual filed the copyright lawsuit against Anthropic.
The plaintiffs are seeking about $41.1m in total, which breaks down to $150,000 for each of the 274 songs named in the complaint.
The songs named in the complaint include All Shook Up, Can't Help Falling in Love, Don't Be Cruel, and Return to Sender.
An Anthropic spokesperson stated that the company disagrees with the claims and intends to defend the case fully in court.
Richard Busch serves as the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in this case, and he also represents other music companies in similar disputes.
Based on reporting by The Next Web. Read the original article
