Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Sue Anthropic

Sony Music Publishing (SMP) and Warner Chappell Music (WCM) are suing Anthropic over alleged mass copyright infringement, stepping up the music publishing sector’s battle with the Claude AI maker. The complaint, which was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday August 28, also names Anthropic Co-Founder/CEO Dario Amodei and Co-Founder Benjamin Mann as individual defendants.

Why it matters:

• The case means publishing arms of all three majors are now suing Anthropic.

• Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group and ABKCO filed a suit in 2023 and again in January 2026, with BMG and Round Hill Music filing separate actions earlier this year.

Alleged infringement:

• The complaint identifies “tens of thousands” of allegedly infringed musical compositions.

• Songs cited include “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” “Eye of the Tiger,” “Livin’ On a Prayer,” “September,” “Uptown Funk,” and Taylor Swift’s “Paper Rings.”

• The lawsuit alleges four counts of infringement: direct infringement by torrenting against Anthropic, Amodei and Mann; contributory infringement by torrenting against Amodei and Mann; and, against Anthropic, direct infringement, and removal or alteration of copyright management information.

Damages:

• With the suit seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 per wilfully infringed work (plus up to $25,000 for each alleged removal of copyright management information), this puts the statutory exposure into the multi-billion-dollar range.

• SMP and WCM are also seeking destruction of all infringing copies of the works and an account of Claude’s training data, while demanding a jury trial.