BMG Rights Management v Anthropic PBC: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:23, 7 September 2026

Case Information
Case name	BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Anthropic PBC^[1]
Court	U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California^[1]
Docket	5:26-cv-02334-EKL^[1]
Filed	March 17, 2026^[1]
Judge(s)	Eumi K. Lee^[2]
Plaintiffs	BMG Rights Management (US) LLC^[1]
Defendants	Anthropic PBC^[1]
Case type	Civil action^[1]
Claims / issues	Copyright infringement involving musical compositions and lyrics^[1]
Status	April 24, 2026: temporary stay and revised briefing schedule ordered. Later developments have not been verified.^[2]

BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Anthropic PBC is a copyright infringement lawsuit filed on March 17, 2026, in which music publisher BMG alleges Anthropic used 493 copyrighted musical compositions to train its Claude AI models without authorization.^[3]

Background

On March 17, 2026, BMG Rights Management (US) LLC filed suit against Anthropic PBC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose division), case number 5:26-cv-02334.^[4]

The complaint alleges that Anthropic copied lyrics from 493 BMG-owned compositions — including works by Bruno Mars, The Rolling Stones, Louis Armstrong, and others — via web scraping and torrenting pirated books from shadow libraries like Library Genesis.^[5]

Claims

BMG's 47-page complaint asserts five causes of action:^[4]

Direct copyright infringement through training AI models and generating outputs reproducing BMG lyrics
Direct copyright infringement via torrenting pirated materials containing BMG works
Contributory infringement, for enabling user or third-party infringement
Vicarious infringement, for profiting from and controlling infringing activities
Removal or alteration of Copyright Management Information (CMI) under DMCA §1202, alleging Anthropic used tools to strip copyright notices from works

The complaint alleges Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei authorized torrenting to bypass licensing requirements and that Anthropic ignored a December 2025 cease-and-desist letter from BMG.^[5]

Relief Sought

BMG demands a jury trial and seeks:^[6]

Statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringed work (potentially billions for 493 works)
Actual damages and profits disgorgement
Injunctive relief to halt use of BMG works
Costs and attorneys' fees

BMG has requested assignment to the judge handling related Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord, and ABKCO cases against Anthropic.^[4]

Significance

The BMG lawsuit is the latest in a series of copyright actions against Anthropic by music industry plaintiffs and follows the proposed $1.5 billion settlement with authors and publishers in the parallel Bartz v Anthropic PBC class action. Unlike the authors' settlement, BMG proceeds independently as a music publisher rather than joining the existing class action framework.

The case is also notable for its CMI removal claims under DMCA §1202, which extend beyond the standard copyright infringement claims in other AI training data cases and could establish new precedent if successful.

Related Cases

Bartz v Anthropic PBC — Authors' class action settled for $1.5 billion (fairness hearing May 14, 2026)
Kadrey v Meta Platforms Inc — Authors allege Meta trained LLaMA on pirated books
UMG Recordings Inc v Suno Inc — Major labels sue AI music generator
UMG Recordings Inc v Uncharted Labs Inc — Record labels sue Udio AI music platform

References

[case-record-fb1cb9874972612d-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 ^1.7 Court filing / case record, reviewed September 7, 2026

[case-record-2a316ae0e5b045e0-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Court filing / case record, reviewed September 7, 2026

[justia-3] Justia Docket: BMG Rights Management v. Anthropic PBC, No. 5:26-cv-02334 (N.D. Cal.)

[musicbiz-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Music Business Worldwide: BMG Sues Anthropic, Alleging AI Giant's "$380B Valuation Was Built On Stolen Copyrighted Works"

[changeflow-5] 5.0 ^5.1 Changeflow: BMG Rights Management Sues Anthropic PBC Over Copyright

[dailyrecord-6] The Daily Record: BMG Sues Anthropic for Using Bruno Mars, Rolling Stones Lyrics in AI Training

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+<!-- AILawWiki case sidebar v1 -->
+<div class="ailaw-case-layout" style="display:flex;flex-direction:row-reverse;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:1.5em;align-items:flex-start;">
+<div class="ailaw-case-sidebar" style="flex:0 1 22em;max-width:100%;min-width:0;">
+{| class="wikitable ailaw-case-info" style="width:100%;margin:0;"
+|+ style="font-size:125%;font-weight:bold;padding:0.5em;" | Case Information
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Case name
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Anthropic PBC<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d">[https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.466061/gov.uscourts.cand.466061.1.0.pdf Court filing / case record, reviewed September 7, 2026]</ref>
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Court
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d" />
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Docket
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | 5:26-cv-02334-EKL<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d" />
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Filed
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | March 17, 2026<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d" />
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Judge(s)
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | Eumi K. Lee<ref name="case-record-2a316ae0e5b045e0">[https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.466061/gov.uscourts.cand.466061.29.0.pdf Court filing / case record, reviewed September 7, 2026]</ref>
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Plaintiffs
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | BMG Rights Management (US) LLC<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d" />
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Defendants
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | Anthropic PBC<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d" />
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Case type
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | Civil action<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d" />
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Claims / issues
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | Copyright infringement involving musical compositions and lyrics<ref name="case-record-fb1cb9874972612d" />
+|-
+! scope="row" style="width:30%;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" | Status
+| style="vertical-align:top;overflow-wrap:anywhere;" | April 24, 2026: temporary stay and revised briefing schedule ordered. Later developments have not been verified.<ref name="case-record-2a316ae0e5b045e0" />
+|}
+</div>
+<div class="ailaw-case-article" style="flex:1 1 28em;min-width:0;overflow-wrap:anywhere;">
 '''BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Anthropic PBC''' is a copyright infringement lawsuit filed on March 17, 2026, in which music publisher BMG alleges Anthropic used 493 copyrighted musical compositions to train its Claude AI models without authorization.<ref name="justia">[https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/candce/5:2026cv02334/466061 Justia Docket: BMG Rights Management v. Anthropic PBC, No. 5:26-cv-02334 (N.D. Cal.)]</ref>
@@ Line 45: / Line 86: @@
 == References ==
 <references />
+</div>
+</div>
+<!-- /AILawWiki case sidebar v1 -->
 [[Category:Copyright Litigation]]
 [[Category:Cases Against Anthropic]]
 [[Category:Music Industry]]