Major Music Publishers Sue AI Startup Anthropic for Alleged Copyright Infringement of Song Lyrics

Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group and ABKCO are suing AI company Anthropic for copyright infringement of lyrics from artists like Katy Perry and The Rolling Stones.

The lawsuit accuses Anthropic of "systematic and widespread infringement" by copying lyrics without permission to train its Claude chatbot.

It's the first lawsuit from music publishers against an AI company over lyric usage. Authors Guild recently sued OpenAI over using copyrighted books to train AI.

The lawsuit argues Anthropic undermines licensing markets by refusing to pay to license the lyrics its profiting from in Claude.

The publishers are seeking damages up to $150,000 per infringement and a court order blocking Anthropic from further unlicensed use of lyrics.