News-Sony-Warner-Anthropic-Music-Copyright-Lawsuit-2026
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August 28, 2026 — Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, and affiliated publishers filed a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic PBC, chief executive Dario Amodei, and co-founder Benjamin Mann in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.[1]
Allegations
The publishers allege that Anthropic torrented books containing protected lyrics and sheet music from LibGen and PiLiMi, scraped lyrics from licensed display sites, downloaded third-party datasets, and destructively scanned physical books without authorization.[1] They further allege that Anthropic copied tens of thousands of musical compositions during Claude training and that Claude generated verbatim, near-verbatim, derivative, and competing lyric outputs.[1]
The complaint names Amodei and Mann individually based on allegations that they directed or approved Anthropic’s torrenting activity.[1] It asserts direct copyright infringement against all defendants for torrenting, contributory infringement against Amodei and Mann, direct infringement against Anthropic for other copying and outputs, and removal or alteration of copyright-management information against Anthropic.[1]
Relief sought
The publishers request statutory or actual damages, Anthropic’s attributable profits, injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs, and a jury trial.[1]
See Also
- Sony Music Publishing et al v Anthropic PBC et al
- August 28, 2026 AI Law Digest
- BMG Rights Management v Anthropic PBC
- Round Hill Music LP v Anthropic PBC