The startup behind the Claude chatbot, Anthropic, is facing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit alleging that it misused a vast catalogue of copyrighted songs to train its artificial intelligence models. The legal action, brought by music publishers, describes the company's practices as one of the most blatant and significant thefts of intellectual property in history.
According to the plaintiffs, Anthropic intentionally harvested unauthorized copies of musical works to avoid paying licensing fees. The lawsuit alleges that the company downloaded at least 7 million copies of books from pirate websites, which included sheet music and lyrics for numerous well-known compositions. Among the works cited in the legal filing are Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell classic “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
The legal action implies that at least 20,000 works are involved, with the plaintiffs claiming that “tens of thousands” of copyrighted musical compositions were unlawfully copied. The music publishers are seeking damages that could reach into the billions of dollars. This figure is based on claims of up to $150,000 per infringed piece of work, along with an additional $25,000 for each instance where identifying data was removed or altered.
This case adds to the mounting legal pressure on Anthropic, which is also facing claims from Universal Music Group and Concord Music Group. Despite the allegations, the company—which is currently preparing for a stock market listing that could value it at $2 trillion—remains defiant. In a statement provided to TechCrunch, an Anthropic spokesperson noted, “We disagree with the publishers’ claims and we intend to defend ourselves robustly in court.”
