Music publishers Sony and Warner sue Anthropic, naming Dario Amodei and Ben Mann

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have sued Anthropic for copyright infringement, and they have not stopped at the company. The complaint names founders Ben Mann and Dario Amodei as defendants in their own right, arguing that both were personally involved in the conduct at issue.

The specific allegation is about how the training data was obtained. The publishers say Mann personally used BitTorrent to unlawfully download and upload millions of pirated books, including books containing sheet music and lyrics, and that both Mann and Amodei expressly directed other Anthropic employees to do the same.

The claim about personal liability rests on that direction. Without the two founders' direction and approval, the lawsuit argues, none of the torrenting activity would have occurred, which is the reasoning that pulls named individuals into a case that would otherwise sit entirely against the corporate entity.

The publishers put the scale in strong terms, describing the pirating of copyright-protected works and the additional copies made during Claude's training process as one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.

Sony and Warner are late to this particular fight. Universal Music Publishing, Concord and ABKCO filed against Anthropic back in October 2023, BMG launched its own action in March this year, and Round Hill filed last month. Anthropic has already moved to have part of the publishers' lyrics case dismissed.

The filing joins a growing pile of actions brought by labels, publishers and independent creators against AI companies including Suno and Udio. A new Suno lawsuit was filed in the same week, and Udio made a further court filing in its own dispute. Round Hill, notably, sued both Suno and Anthropic for up to a billion dollars each, and said it had no intention of settling either case.