Sony Music, Warner sue Anthropic, alleging a “brazen campaign” of intellectual property theft

Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group have filed a lawsuit in California accusing AI startup Anthropic of conducting a “brazen campaign” to scrape copyrighted music and lyrics for training its Claude language model.

Allegations of Systematic Copyright Infringement

The plaintiffs claim Anthropic harvested millions of songs, sheet music, and lyric databases without permission, using automated tools to feed the data into its generative AI system. They argue this violates U.S. copyright law and deprives creators of royalties.

According to the complaint, Anthropic’s engineers accessed public streaming platforms and music publishing sites, downloading full tracks and associated metadata. The lawsuit alleges that the company then used this material to improve Claude’s ability to generate music‑related text and even compose original‑sounding melodies.

Legal Grounds and Requested Relief

Sony and Warner seek a preliminary injunction to halt Anthropic’s use of the disputed content, as well as monetary damages for past infringements. The complaint also requests the destruction of all copies of the scraped material and an accounting of profits derived from the AI model’s outputs.

The filing cites the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Copyright Act’s provisions against unauthorized reproduction and distribution. Plaintiffs argue that Anthropic’s actions constitute willful infringement, given internal communications that allegedly discussed “massive data acquisition” as a competitive advantage.

Anthropic’s Response

Anthropic has not yet commented publicly on the lawsuit. In prior statements, the company has emphasized its commitment to “responsible AI development” and claimed it only uses data that is publicly available or licensed.

Legal analysts note that the case could set a precedent for how AI developers source training data, especially in creative industries where copyright protections are robust.

• Potential injunction to stop data use
• Monetary damages for alleged infringement
• Destruction of scraped content
• Audit of AI‑generated outputs for copyrighted material

“This is about protecting the rights of artists and ensuring that AI companies can’t simply steal our work and profit from it without compensation,” said a Sony Music spokesperson.

The lawsuit adds to a growing wave of legal actions against AI firms, following similar cases brought by news publishers and visual artists seeking to curb unauthorized data harvesting.

TechCrunch coverage of Sony and Warner’s lawsuit against Anthropic