Three music publishers have requested a preliminary injunction to prohibit the artificial intelligence company Anthropic from reproducing or sharing their copyrighted song lyrics. This legal action, initiated on November 17 and reported by Reuters, involves Universal Music Group (UMG), Concord Music Group, and ABKCO Music.
The dispute centers on Anthropic’s AI technology, which the publishers allege has been unlawfully utilizing copyrighted lyrics to train its artificial intelligence models. Specifically, the publishers accuse Anthropic of unauthorized use of their songs in developing an AI assistant named “Claude.” This AI system reportedly generates responses using copyrighted lyrics when prompted by users for various tasks, such as providing song lyrics or creating content in the style of specific artists.
The lawsuit, filed on October 18, asserts that Anthropic has engaged in widespread copyright violations by incorporating substantial portions of copyrighted lyrics into its AI training data without permission. The publishers claim that Anthropic’s actions have resulted in financial gain for the company, estimated at $5 billion, while allegedly compensating the publishers and songwriters inadequately, if at all.
In response to the legal action, Anthropic emphasized its commitment to developing ethical and transparent artificial intelligence systems but refrained from commenting on the specifics of the ongoing dispute.
The publishers are seeking a court order to halt the alleged copyright infringement by Anthropic and are also pursuing monetary damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work. They argue that immediate intervention is necessary to prevent further harm to their copyrighted works and to address the ongoing misuse of their intellectual property.
