The music industry has delivered a new blow to artificial intelligence developers. Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing the company of systematically violating copyrights when training its Claude models. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation of up to $150,000 for each work, which could collectively amount to multi-billion-dollar payouts.
The Core of the Claims: Pirated Books and Song Lyrics
The lawsuit was filed in the federal court for the Northern District of California, and named as defendants, in addition to Anthropic itself, are its CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann. In my assessment, this is a signal: rights holders intend to hold not only the corporation accountable but also the key individuals who made the decisions. At the center of the accusations is the use of tens of thousands of protected compositions, including hits such as Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Livin' on a Prayer, and Hallelujah.
Special attention in the lawsuit is given to data collection methods. It is alleged that Anthropic downloaded pirated copies of books and extracted song lyrics from licensed platforms such as Musixmatch and LyricFind. This is not just a technical detail but a direct indication that, according to the plaintiffs, the company deliberately ignored legal mechanisms for protecting intellectual property.
Financial Scale and Positions of the Parties
The publishers are insisting on a jury trial and are demanding up to $150,000 for each violation, plus up to $25,000 for the removal or alteration of copyright management information. If the court finds violations for a significant portion of the mentioned works, the claim amount could reach several billion dollars. In their statement, Sony and Warner describe Anthropic's actions as "one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history."
Anthropic, for its part, rejects the accusations. A company representative stated: "We disagree with the publishers' claims and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court." This is standard rhetoric, but behind it lies a real threat: for Anthropic, this is not the first conflict of this kind.
Context: A Series of Lawsuits Against AI Developers
The new lawsuit is just one episode in a prolonged war between rights holders and the AI industry. In January 2026, Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO had already filed a separate $3 billion lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing Claude of infringing on rights to more than 20,000 musical works. Earlier, the company settled claims from book authors, agreeing to pay $1.5 billion for the use of pirated copies.
It is telling that this wave of litigation coincides with investigations into other giants. For example, journalists at 404 Media found that Amazon scanned and destroyed rare books to train AI, attempting to circumvent the law. The industry is clearly at a bifurcation point: either transparent licensing rules will be developed, or courts will set precedents that will change the entire AI development landscape.
My expert conclusion: This lawsuit is not just a legal formality but part of a strategy to rewrite the rules of the game. If Sony and Warner succeed, it will create a dangerous precedent for AI companies, forcing them to reconsider their approach to model training. In the short term, the market can expect volatility, and in the long term, stricter regulation. Investors should closely monitor the development of this case, as its outcome could affect the value not only of Anthropic but also of all key players in the sector.