Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC v. Anthropic PBC

What this case is about

Sony Music Publishing and other music publishers are suing Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude, alleging that Anthropic used copyrighted song lyrics without permission to train its artificial intelligence systems. The publishers claim that Claude can reproduce recognizable portions of protected song lyrics when prompted by users, demonstrating that the copyrighted material was incorporated into the AI's training data and outputs. The plaintiffs argue that Anthropic never obtained licenses or paid royalties for using this copyrighted content, causing significant financial harm to the rights holders. The proposed class includes music publishers and other copyright holders whose protected works were allegedly used without authorization to develop and improve Anthropic's commercial AI products.

What happens next

The case is in its earliest stage. The defendant has not yet responded. Class certification — the court's decision on whether the case can proceed as a class action — typically takes 12 to 24 months after filing.

Source: CourtListener docket entry. This summary was generated automatically and may not reflect subsequent filings.