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Music Giants Sue AI Over Song Piracy
29 Jan
Summary
- AI company Anthropic faces lawsuit from major music publishers.
- Accusation of using illegal libraries to train AI on songs.
- Potential damages exceed $3 billion for over 20,000 songs.
A coalition of prominent music publishers, including Universal Music Group and Concord, has initiated a major federal copyright infringement lawsuit against AI company Anthropic. The suit claims Anthropic unlawfully utilized "pirate libraries" to train its AI chatbot, specifically alleging the illegal acquisition of over 700 song works through torrenting. Publishers assert this practice allowed Anthropic to avoid licensing fees for content used in training its AI.
This new legal action represents an escalation from a 2023 suit, where similar allegations were made regarding the training of Anthropic's Claude AI. The coalition is pursuing infringement claims for more than 20,000 songs. They estimate potential statutory damages could surpass $3 billion, characterizing the case as potentially one of the largest non-class action copyright lawsuits ever filed in the United States.
Anthropic has previously denied the copyright infringement allegations. The publishers maintain that any claimed use of the allegedly stolen works for AI training does not negate the initial infringement through torrenting, deeming it a standalone act of copyright violation.
