BMG Rights Management has filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in a California federal court, alleging that the AI company used copyrighted song lyrics without authorization to train its Claude models. The complaint cites works from major artists including The Rolling Stones, Bruno Mars, and Ariana Grande.
BMG claims Anthropic reproduced and used lyrics from hundreds of songs, identifying 493 alleged instances of copyright infringement. The company argues that sourcing content from unauthorized platforms violates industry standards and intellectual property laws.
The case adds to a growing number of legal challenges facing AI developers over training data practices. Music publisher Universal Music Group previously filed a similar lawsuit against Anthropic in 2023, which remains ongoing. Anthropic also settled a separate case with authors last year for $1.5 billion.
AI companies, including Anthropic, have generally argued that training models on copyrighted material qualifies as fair use because the output is transformative. However, courts have yet to establish clear precedent on the issue.
If the court finds willful infringement, damages could reach up to $150,000 per work under U.S. law.
