Two of the world’s largest music publishers have sued Anthropic: Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music filed suit in a federal court in Northern California on August 28, 2026, accusing the AI company of using „tens of thousands” of copyrighted compositions without a license to train its Claude chatbot. According to media reports, the complaint describes one of the „largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.”
The Allegation: „Piracy at Massive Scale”
The publishers argue that Anthropic scraped lyrics from licensed services such as MusixMatch and LyricFind, among others, to train its models. The conduct amounts to „straightforward piracy but at massive scale,” the complaint states. The labels seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each willfully infringed work, plus up to $25,000 for every removal or alteration of copyright management information. Anthropic rejects the claims, saying it disagrees with the publishers’ allegations and intends „to defend ourselves robustly in court.”
All Three Majors Are Now Suing
What is new here is above all the lineup of plaintiffs. Universal Music Publishing, Concord and ABKCO have been litigating against Anthropic since 2023 – initially over some 500 songs, later expanded to more than 20,000 works. With Sony and Warner joining, all three major music publishers are now in active proceedings against the same company for the first time. The move lands at a delicate moment: only last month, Anthropic reached a historic $1.5 billion copyright settlement with a class of authors. The new case is at an early stage, and its outcome remains open.
Sources: Axios, PYMNTS, Digital Music News, Music Business Worldwide.
