Music Publishers Take Legal Action Against Anthropic Over Song Lyrics

In a groundbreaking legal battle that underscores the ongoing evolution of artificial intelligence technology, major music publishers have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, an AI company, over the alleged unauthorized generation of song lyrics. The case raises important questions about intellectual property, creativity, and the role of AI in the music industry. As technology continues to blur the lines between human and machine-generated content, the outcome of this lawsuit could have far-reaching implications.

In a legal action filed in a Tennessee federal court on Wednesday, major music publishers, namely Universal Music, ABKCO, and Concord Publishing, have taken legal action against Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company. The lawsuit alleges that Anthropic improperly utilized a vast number of copyrighted song lyrics to train its chatbot, Claude.

According to the lawsuit, Anthropic is alleged to have infringed upon the rights of the publishers by using lyrics from over 500 songs, encompassing a wide spectrum from classics like the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" to contemporary hits like Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk" and Beyonce's "Halo."

No immediate response was received from Anthropic's representatives when requested for a comment.

The attorney representing the publishers, Matt Oppenheim, refrained from commenting on the ongoing legal matter but emphasized that copyright law has clearly established that a company cannot reproduce, distribute, or display copyrighted works of others to develop its own business without obtaining proper permission from the copyright holders.

Numerous copyright holders, including authors and visual artists, have initiated lawsuits against technology giants such as Meta Platforms and the Microsoft-backed OpenAI for their use of copyrighted material in the training of generative AI systems.

The recent lawsuit brought forth by music publishers marks a groundbreaking case, as it is the first of its kind involving song lyrics and the initial legal action directed at Anthropic. This AI company, supported financially by major players like Google, Amazon, and former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, is now facing accusations of copyright infringement.

The lawsuit contends that Anthropic violated the publishers' copyrights by appropriating their lyrics without obtaining the necessary permissions. This occurred as part of Anthropic's practice of collecting "extensive volumes of text" from the internet to train its AI system, Claude, in responding to human queries.

The publishers further assert that Claude reproduces these lyrics upon request and in response to a wide array of prompts that are not in pursuit of the publishers' lyrics. These include requests to compose a song on a particular topic, provide chord progressions for a given musical piece, or create poetry or short fiction in the style of a specific artist or songwriter.

As an illustrative example, the lawsuit highlights Claude's action of delivering relevant lyrics from Don McLean's "American Pie" when prompted to write a song about the late rock pioneer Buddy Holly.

In their legal action, the publishers seek both financial compensation for damages and an injunction to halt the alleged copyright infringement.