Skip to Content
logologo
AI Incident Database
Donate
Discover
Submit
  • Welcome to the AIID
  • Table View
  • List view
  • Entities
  • Taxonomies
  • Spatial View
  • Blog
  • AI News Digest
  • Random Incident
  • Sign Up
Discover
Submit
  • Welcome to the AIID
  • Table View
  • List view
  • Entities
  • Taxonomies
  • Spatial View
  • Blog
  • AI News Digest
  • Random Incident
  • Sign Up

Incident 1657: Anthropic Allegedly Copied Copyrighted Song Lyrics Without Permission to Train Claude

Description: Music publishers alleged that Anthropic copied copyrighted song lyrics without permission to train Claude and that Claude reproduced protected lyrics in its outputs. Anthropic denied infringement and has argued that its training use is fair use. Publishers alleged that the conduct deprived rightsholders and songwriters of licensing control and revenue and undermined markets for licensed lyrics.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: Later-disclosed Anthropic records showed Claude reproducing copyrighted song lyrics in third-party responses by 09/27/2023, and music publishers sued Anthropic on 10/18/2023 alleging unauthorized copying of lyrics for Claude training and reproduction in outputs. In 2025, Anthropic agreed to maintain lyric-output guardrails, while a federal judge denied the publishers' preliminary-injunction request without resolving whether the training use constituted fair use. In 2026, BMG and Round Hill brought additional related claims, and the original publishers and Anthropic advanced competing summary-judgment arguments over whether the alleged training use was infringing or protected by fair use. The incident ID was created 08/25/2026.

Tools

New ReportNew ResponseDiscoverView History

Entities

View all entities
Alleged: Anthropic , Large language model developers and Chatbot developers developed an AI system deployed by Anthropic and AI service providers, which harmed Universal Music Group , Songwriters , Round Hill Music , publishers , Musicians , Music publishers , Intellectual Property rights holders , Copyright holders , Concord Music Group , BMG Rights Management and ABKCO Music.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Large language models , Claude AI models , Claude and Chatbots

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1657
Report Count
11
Incident Date
2023-09-27
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+1
Music publishers sue AI company Anthropic over song lyrics
Anthropic asks court to dismiss music publishers' AI claimsAnthropic reaches deal on AI 'guardrails' in lawsuit over music lyricsAnthropic wins early round in music publishers' AI copyright caseMusic publishers fend off Anthropic's bid to dismiss some AI copyright claims+1
BMG sues Anthropic for using Bruno Mars, Rolling Stones lyrics in AI training
Anthropic seeks pivotal court win in music publisher lawsuit over AI training+2
Music publisher sues Anthropic, Suno over AI training
Loading...
Music publishers sue AI company Anthropic over song lyrics

Music publishers sue AI company Anthropic over song lyrics

reuters.com

Loading...
Anthropic asks court to dismiss music publishers' AI claims

Anthropic asks court to dismiss music publishers' AI claims

reuters.com

Loading...
Anthropic reaches deal on AI 'guardrails' in lawsuit over music lyrics

Anthropic reaches deal on AI 'guardrails' in lawsuit over music lyrics

reuters.com

Loading...
Anthropic wins early round in music publishers' AI copyright case

Anthropic wins early round in music publishers' AI copyright case

reuters.com

Loading...
Music publishers fend off Anthropic's bid to dismiss some AI copyright claims

Music publishers fend off Anthropic's bid to dismiss some AI copyright claims

reuters.com

Loading...
BMG sues Anthropic for using Bruno Mars, Rolling Stones lyrics in AI training

BMG sues Anthropic for using Bruno Mars, Rolling Stones lyrics in AI training

reuters.com

Loading...
US music publishers suing Anthropic make their case against AI 'fair use'

US music publishers suing Anthropic make their case against AI 'fair use'

reuters.com

Loading...
Anthropic seeks pivotal court win in music publisher lawsuit over AI training

Anthropic seeks pivotal court win in music publisher lawsuit over AI training

reuters.com

Loading...
Music publisher sues Anthropic, Suno over AI training

Music publisher sues Anthropic, Suno over AI training

reuters.com

Loading...
Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for up to $1B apiece. It isn’t looking to settle.

Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for up to $1B apiece. It isn’t looking to settle.

musicbusinessworldwide.com

Loading...
5 things to know about Round Hill’s Suno and Anthropic lawsuits: model weights, extraction tools, and a $75M number

5 things to know about Round Hill’s Suno and Anthropic lawsuits: model weights, extraction tools, and a $75M number

musicbusinessworldwide.com

Loading...
Music publishers sue AI company Anthropic over song lyrics
reuters.com · 2023

(This Oct. 18 story has been refiled to correct Concord's corporate name in paragraph 1)

Music publishers Universal Music (UMG.AS), opens new tab, ABKCO and Concord sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in Tennessee federal court o…

Loading...
Anthropic asks court to dismiss music publishers' AI claims
reuters.com · 2024

Artificial-intelligence company Anthropic asked a California federal court on Thursday to dismiss some copyright claims brought by a group of music publishers over the alleged misuse of song lyrics to train its AI-powered chatbot Claude.

An…

Loading...
Anthropic reaches deal on AI 'guardrails' in lawsuit over music lyrics
reuters.com · 2025

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has reached an agreement with Universal Music (UMG.AS), opens new tab and other music publishers over its use of "guardrails" to keep its chatbot Claude from generating copyrighted song lyrics, reso…

Loading...
Anthropic wins early round in music publishers' AI copyright case
reuters.com · 2025

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic convinced a California federal judge on Tuesday to reject a preliminary bid to block it from using lyrics owned by Universal Music Group (UMG.AS), opens new tab and other music publishers to train i…

Loading...
Music publishers fend off Anthropic's bid to dismiss some AI copyright claims
reuters.com · 2025

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic lost a bid on Monday to dismiss parts of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by music publishers over Anthropic's alleged misuse of their song lyrics in its AI training.

U.S. District Judge Eum…

Loading...
BMG sues Anthropic for using Bruno Mars, Rolling Stones lyrics in AI training
reuters.com · 2026

Music company BMG Rights Management has sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in California federal court for allegedly using its copyrighted lyrics ‌to train the large language models powering its Claude chatbot.

BMG said in the c…

Loading...
US music publishers suing Anthropic make their case against AI 'fair use'
reuters.com · 2026

Music publishers Universal Music Group (UMG.AS), opens new tab, Concord and ABKCO have asked a judge in California to rule that U.S. copyright law does not insulate artificial intelligence startup Anthropic from ​liability for copying their…

Loading...
Anthropic seeks pivotal court win in music publisher lawsuit over AI training
reuters.com · 2026

April 21 (Reuters) - 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 (UMG.AS), opens new tab, Concord ‌and ABKCO, a…

Loading...
Music publisher sues Anthropic, Suno over AI training
reuters.com · 2026

Aug 17 (Reuters) - Independent music publisher Round Hill Music sued Anthropic and Suno in California federal court on Monday, alleging the AI companies misused hundreds of its songs to train their systems.

Round Hill said in its complaint …

Loading...
Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for up to $1B apiece. It isn’t looking to settle.
musicbusinessworldwide.com · 2026

Round Hill Music has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Suno and Anthropic -- and says it has no intention of settling either one.

The complaints were filed on Monday (August 17) in the US District Court for the Northern District…

Loading...
5 things to know about Round Hill’s Suno and Anthropic lawsuits: model weights, extraction tools, and a $75M number
musicbusinessworldwide.com · 2026

Round Hill Music filed two copyright complaints last week, one against Suno and data-scraping firm Bright Data, the other against Anthropic. Both are in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

MBW reported the headlin…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
Seen something similar?

Similar Incidents

Selected by our editors

Suno Allegedly Copied Copyrighted Music Without Permission to Train Its Generative AI Models

Jun 2024 · 25 reports
By textual similarity

Did our AI mess up? Flag the unrelated incidents

Loading...
Bad AI-Written Christmas Carols

Bad AI-Written Christmas Carols

Dec 2017 · 1 report
Loading...
Microsoft’s Algorithm Allegedly Selected Photo of the Wrong Mixed-Race Person Featured in a News Story

Microsoft’s Algorithm Allegedly Selected Photo of the Wrong Mixed-Race Person Featured in a News Story

Jun 2020 · 12 reports
Loading...
Facebook’s Algorithm Mistook an Advertisement of Onions as Sexual Suggestive Content

Facebook’s Algorithm Mistook an Advertisement of Onions as Sexual Suggestive Content

Oct 2020 · 3 reports
Previous IncidentNext Incident

Similar Incidents

Selected by our editors

Suno Allegedly Copied Copyrighted Music Without Permission to Train Its Generative AI Models

Jun 2024 · 25 reports
By textual similarity

Did our AI mess up? Flag the unrelated incidents

Loading...
Bad AI-Written Christmas Carols

Bad AI-Written Christmas Carols

Dec 2017 · 1 report
Loading...
Microsoft’s Algorithm Allegedly Selected Photo of the Wrong Mixed-Race Person Featured in a News Story

Microsoft’s Algorithm Allegedly Selected Photo of the Wrong Mixed-Race Person Featured in a News Story

Jun 2020 · 12 reports
Loading...
Facebook’s Algorithm Mistook an Advertisement of Onions as Sexual Suggestive Content

Facebook’s Algorithm Mistook an Advertisement of Onions as Sexual Suggestive Content

Oct 2020 · 3 reports

Research

  • Defining an “AI Incident”
  • Defining an “AI Incident Response”
  • Database Roadmap
  • Related Work
  • Download Complete Database

Project and Community

  • About
  • Contact and Follow
  • Apps and Summaries
  • Editor’s Guide

Incidents

  • All Incidents in List Form
  • Flagged Incidents
  • Submission Queue
  • Classifications View
  • Taxonomies

2026 - AI Incident Database

  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • dd3f754