UMG & Publishers Urge Judge to Rule Anthropic AI Training Infringed Copyrights
Music Publishers Seek Immediate Ruling in AI Copyright Case Against Anthropic
A group of leading music publishers, including Universal Music Group (UMG) and Concord Music Group, are pressing a federal judge for a swift decision in their lawsuit against artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, arguing the company illegally used millions of song lyrics to train its Claude AI model. The publishers filed a motion Tuesday, March 24, 2026, seeking summary judgment – an immediate ruling in their favor – on the central question of whether Anthropic’s leverage of the lyrics constitutes “fair use” under copyright law.
The lawsuit, initially filed in 2023, centers on Anthropic’s Claude chatbot and its training process. Publishers allege Anthropic “scraped and copied” copyrighted song lyrics “on a massive scale” without permission or compensation, a practice they characterize as blatant copyright infringement. According to a brief filed with the court and obtained by Billboard, Anthropic is a “$380-billion artificial intelligence company” engaging in “quintessential infringement — not fair use.”
The case is one of several ongoing legal battles concerning the use of copyrighted material in the development of AI models. While this case was an early entrant into the legal fray, it was subsequently joined by larger litigation involving Suno and Udio, both AI music generation companies, brought by the three major record labels. The publishers now argue the time is ripe for a decision on the core fair use issue.
The publishers contend that the “fair use” doctrine, which allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission, does not apply to Anthropic’s actions. They argue that Anthropic’s commercial exploitation of copyrighted lyrics directly competes with the original works, and that the doctrine was not intended to shield such practices. “To be clear, this case is not a referendum on AI technology,” lawyers for the music companies wrote in their filing. “Publishers embrace the promise of lawfully created AI and have licensed their works for use by numerous AI companies. Publishers rightfully object, although, to Anthropic’s copying of their lyrics to build an AI product that reproduces those lyrics and generates limitless AI rip-offs, all without permission or payment.”
UMG and the other plaintiffs stated that Anthropic has “committed copyright infringement on a massive scale” and has not disputed this claim. They assert that Anthropic copied and ingested songwriters’ lyrics without authorization, trained its Claude chatbot to reproduce those lyrics, and generates AI-derived works that compete with original songs.
Anthropic has stated that Claude was not “designed” for copyright infringement and that it has processes in place to prevent such violations. The company also entered into a stipulation agreeing not to reproduce copyrighted song lyrics or use them to create new ones, according to reporting by PCMag. However, the publishers’ motion suggests they believe this is insufficient.
A representative for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, music publisher BMG filed its own lawsuit against Anthropic on March 22, 2026, alleging similar copyright infringement related to the training and outputs of its Claude models. The BMG complaint details a pattern of alleged infringement, including scraping lyrics from online sources, downloading pirated material via BitTorrent, and removing copyright management information.