Anthropic and music publishers clash over lyrics used to train Claude
Anthropic asked a California judge to rule that using millions of song lyrics to train Claude is fair use; Universal Music Group, Concord and ABKCO say the practice infringes their copyrights and risks competing with songwriters. Judge Eumi Lee did not rule after hearing arguments, which could affect dozens of other AI copyright cases, according to Reuters.
Bottom line — Judge Eumi Lee’s ruling could influence dozens of lawsuits over AI training and copyrighted work.
Go deeper 6
-
Anthropic argued that training on lyrics helps Claude understand human language and produces transformative new content.
-
The publishers say Claude can reproduce lyrics and generate new songs that dilute the market for their catalogues.
-
Publishers’ lawyer Matt Oppenheim said Claude received nearly 120,000 requests for “synthetic” lyrics over six months, according to Reuters.
-
Anthropic’s lawyer said the publishers had not identified specific evidence that Claude or other language models reduced demand for lyrics.
-
Two other Northern California judges have split: William Alsup sided with Anthropic in a book-training case, while Vince Chhabria ruled for Meta and warned that AI training may not be fair use in many circumstances.
-
The publishers sued in 2023 over lyrics from hundreds of songs, including works by Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys.