Anthropic sued for $3B over 'flagrant piracy' of 20,000 songs
What's the story
A group of music publishers, led by Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group, have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic. They allege that the AI company illegally downloaded over 20,000 copyrighted songs. The works in question include sheet music, song lyrics, and musical compositions. The damages could exceed $3 billion if the publishers win their case.
Legal precedent
Lawsuit could be one of the largest in US history
The lawsuit is being handled by the same legal team that represented the plaintiffs in Bartz v. Anthropic. In that case, a group of authors accused Anthropic of using their copyrighted works to train products like Claude. While Judge William Alsup ruled it was legal for Anthropic to train its models on copyrighted content, he also clarified that acquiring such content through piracy was illegal.
Discovery findings
Publishers discovered more illegal downloads during discovery process
Initially, the music publishers had sued Anthropic for using around 500 copyrighted works. However, during the discovery process in the Bartz case, they found that Anthropic had illegally downloaded thousands more. The publishers attempted to amend their original lawsuit to include these piracy allegations but were denied by the court in October for not investigating earlier. This led them to file a separate lawsuit against Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann.
Information
Lawsuit alleges Anthropic's business empire built on piracy
The lawsuit accuses Anthropic of building its multibillion-dollar business empire on piracy, despite its claims of being an AI "safety and research" company. The publishers are seeking damages for the alleged illegal downloads of their copyrighted works.