# Sony and Warner Music sue Anthropic over unauthorized song use in AI training > Source: > Published: 2026-08-31 16:46:40+00:00 Photo: Photo: Rostislav Uzunov / Pexels / Pexels # Sony and Warner Music sue Anthropic over unauthorized song use in AI training The music publishers allege Anthropic illegally torrented and scraped tens of thousands of copyrighted songs to train Claude, seeking up to $150,000 per infringement. Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging the AI company stole copyrighted song compositions on a massive scale to train its Claude chatbot. The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, names Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants alongside the company itself. The publishers claim Anthropic illegally torrented, scraped, and downloaded copyrighted lyrics and sheet music from piracy sites like Library Genesis. They’re seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work and $25,000 per DMCA violation, a tab that could climb into the billions given the alleged scope of the infringement. ## What the publishers are alleging According to the complaint, Anthropic’s data acquisition practices weren’t some accidental gray-area misstep. The publishers paint a picture of deliberate, large-scale piracy: tens of thousands of songs allegedly hoovered up from known piracy repositories and fed into Claude’s training pipeline. The result, they argue, is an AI system that can reproduce copyrighted lyrics verbatim. Songs cited in the lawsuit include iconic works like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Hallelujah.” But the complaint goes beyond simple reproduction. Sony and Warner contend that Claude doesn’t just parrot existing lyrics. It generates competing AI-created song lyrics that undermine the market for original compositions. ## A pattern of legal trouble for Anthropic This isn’t the first time Anthropic has faced this kind of lawsuit. The company previously settled a separate $1.5 billion case brought by authors over similar data practices. Universal Music Publishing has also filed copyright claims against the company, making this the latest in a growing line of legal actions from major rights holders. ## What’s at stake beyond the courtroom The case, filed as No. 5:26-cv-09217, is still in its early stages with no hearing dates set as of late August. A ruling in favor of the publishers could establish binding precedent that reshapes how every AI company acquires and uses training data. If courts determine that ingesting copyrighted works from piracy sites constitutes infringement, and that fair use doesn’t apply, the cost of building large language models could increase dramatically. The financial exposure for Anthropic is significant. With damages sought per individual work, and tens of thousands of songs allegedly involved, even a partial victory for the publishers could result in a judgment large enough to affect the company’s operations and valuation. The $1.5 billion settlement in the authors’ case offers a rough sense of the numbers that can come into play. **Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our [Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).