Elvis Presley Rights Holders Sue Anthropic Over Copyright Infringement

Authentic Brands Group and other Elvis Presley estate entities have filed a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic, seeking approximately $41.1 million in damages for the alleged unauthorized use of 274 songs to train its Claude AI model. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses the company of building its business model on "copyright infringement at a scale never seen before" Source: The Next Web.

The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic used lyrics from iconic tracks such as “All Shook Up” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” without a license or payment. They argue that Anthropic stored these works in an internal library for indefinite retention and removed copyright management information to evade detection Source: Euronews. The complaint further claims that Claude’s guardrails are ineffective, citing instances where the AI generated outputs that closely mirrored original structures and hooks, effectively reproducing copyrighted material under the guise of being "inspired by" the originals Source: The Guardian.

Anthropic has stated it disagrees with the claims and intends to defend the case fully, maintaining that training models on such data constitutes fair use under US law Source: The Next Web. This legal challenge arrives just days before Anthropic’s planned IPO filing, adding significant risk factors to its public listing Source: Euronews.

This case is part of a broader wave of litigation against AI developers. Lead attorney Richard Busch also represents Round Hill Music and Reservoir Media in similar suits against Anthropic and Suno Source: The Next Web. Additionally, major publishers like Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have previously sued Anthropic over lyrics from artists including The Beatles and Michael Jackson Source: Euronews. While Anthropic recently settled a class-action lawsuit with authors for $1.5 billion, this music-focused suit highlights the ongoing tension between AI development and intellectual property rights in the creative sector Source: The Guardian.