* UMG, others said Anthropic misused copyrighted lyrics
* Anthropic said AI training made ‘fair use’ of lyrics
* Fair use likely to be pivotal question in AI copyright cases
By Blake Brittain
– Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has asked a California federal court to rule in its favor in a copyright lawsuit brought by music publishers Universal Music Group, Concord and ABKCO, arguing it made “fair use” of their song lyrics to train its AI-powered chatbot Claude.
Anthropic’sMonday filingaddresses the key question for a wave of high-stakes copyright cases brought by creators against tech companies: is it legally permissible to copy millions of copyrighted works without permission to train AI models?
Anthropic argued on Monday that its AI training made “transformative” use of lyrics to “help Claude understand human language and enable progress and productivity in science, business and education.” Spokespeople for the publishers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the filing on Tuesday. The publishers told the court last month that Anthropic’s AI training was not fair use because Claude generates derivatives of their lyrics that “compete with and dilute the market” for them.
An Anthropic spokesperson declined to comment on the filing. The music publishers sued Anthropic in 2023, alleging that it infringed their copyrights in lyrics from hundreds of songs by musicians including Beyonce, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys. The lawsuit is one of dozens of disputes between copyright owners such as authors and news outlets, and tech giants including OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta Platforms over the training of their AI systems. Amazon- and Google-backed Anthropic was the first major AI company to settle one of the cases, agreeing last year to pay a group of authors $1.5 billion to resolve a class-action lawsuit. All of the pending cases will likely revolve around whether AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by using it to create new, transformative content. The first two judges to consider the issue issued diverging rulings last year.
Anthropic said on Monday that Claude is “the kind of new idea that the Copyright Act not only allows, but encourages.”
“Allowing copyright holders to veto such a transformative technology would ignore the Supreme Court’s mandate that the primary objective of copyright is not to reward the author, but to serve the public,” Anthropic said.
Anthropic asked U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee for summary judgment, a ruling that the company is entitled to win the case based on fair use without a jury trial.
The case is Concord Music Group Inc v. Anthropic PBC, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 5:24-cv-03811.
For the music publishers: Matt Oppenheim of Oppenheim + Zebrak
For Anthropic: Sonal Mehta of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr
Read more:
Music publishers sue AI company Anthropic over song lyrics
Music publishers fend off Anthropic’s bid to dismiss some AI copyright claims
US music publishers suing Anthropic make their case against AI ‘fair use’ (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)
