{"slug": "sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-of-blatant-theft-in-major-new-lawsuit", "title": "Sony Music, Warner accuse Anthropic of ‘blatant theft’ in major new lawsuit", "summary": "Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music and 33 other music publishers filed a lawsuit against Anthropic and co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann, accusing them of 'one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history' for illegally using copyrighted works to train its Claude AI models. The plaintiffs seek an injunction and statutory damages, while Anthropic said it disagrees and will defend itself. The case adds to legal challenges as Anthropic reportedly eyes an IPO with a potential valuation of up to US$2 trillion.", "body_md": "# Sony Music, Warner accuse Anthropic of ‘blatant theft’ in major new lawsuit\n\nThe case, brought by 35 music publishers, adds to the legal challenges facing Anthropic as the AI firm eyes a potential blockbuster IPO\n\n[Wency Chen](/author/wency-chen)in Shanghai\n\nSome of the world’s biggest music publishers have launched a fresh lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing the artificial intelligence giant of conducting “one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history”.\n\nThe case adds to the legal challenges facing Anthropic as the firm eyes a potential blockbuster initial public offering, as the AI industry confronts growing pushback over its use of human-made material to train its models.\n\n“US courts have focused on whether training data was lawfully obtained, finding that acquiring copyrighted material through unauthorised means may itself constitute infringement,” said Yu Lin, a partner at Han Kun Law Offices focusing on intellectual property litigation.\n\nSony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music and their affiliates – 35 publishers in total – filed complaints late on Friday with a court in California, accusing Anthropic and co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann of “illegally torrenting, scraping and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale”.\n\nThe plaintiffs are seeking an injunction and statutory damages for the alleged violations, which they said had helped Anthropic “develop, operate and reap enormous profits from” its Claude series of AI models.\n\n“We disagree with the publishers’ claims and we intend to defend ourselves robustly in court,” Anthropic said in a statement in response.\n\nThe lawsuit comes as Anthropic reportedly pursues plans to go public in potentially one of the largest IPOs in history, with investors discussing a valuation of as much as US$2 trillion, according to the Financial Times.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-of-blatant-theft-in-major-new-lawsuit", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3365770/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-blatant-theft-major-new-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-08-30 13:44:43+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-30 13:53:49.243140+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Sony Music Publishing", "Warner Chappell Music", "Anthropic", "Dario Amodei", "Benjamin Mann", "Han Kun Law Offices", "Yu Lin"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-of-blatant-theft-in-major-new-lawsuit", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-of-blatant-theft-in-major-new-lawsuit.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-of-blatant-theft-in-major-new-lawsuit.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-of-blatant-theft-in-major-new-lawsuit.jsonld"}}