Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music and 33 other music publishers filed a federal lawsuit against Anthropic and its co-founders, Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann, alleging illegal downloading and use of copyrighted song lyrics and scores to train Anthropic’s Claude AI model. The suit was filed in late August 2026 in a California federal court [1, 2, 3, 4].
The plaintiffs seek an injunction to stop the alleged infringements and demand statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work. The publishers claim the total damages could reach millions of dollars [2, 3, 4]. The lawsuit alleges Anthropic sourced infringing material from pirate websites such as LibGen and Pirate Library Mirror, including songs from artists like Mariah Carey and Taylor Swift [4].
Anthropic denied the allegations, stating, "We disagree with the publishers’ claims and we intend to defend ourselves robustly in court" [1, 2]. The company faces this legal challenge while reportedly preparing for an initial public offering valued as high as $2 trillion, building on a valuation of $965 billion as of May 2026 [1, 2, 3].
Earlier in 2026, Anthropic settled a separate, large copyright lawsuit with US writers for approximately $1.5 billion. The music publishers argue this previous settlement does not adequately compensate given Anthropic’s high valuation and treat that payment as a standard operational cost [2, 3, 4].
Music industry giants, including Sony, Warner, and Universal, previously sued AI music platforms such as Udio and Suno in 2024 for unauthorized training on copyrighted songs. Some of those cases ended in licensing agreements allowing for use of music in AI training under negotiated terms [2, 3, 4].
The current suit will be tried by a jury, with the possibility of statutory damages if willful infringement is found [4]. The filing date was August 28, 2026.
The case represents the latest high-profile copyright dispute involving AI training data. Legal proceedings are expected to unfold over the coming months.
