Harmony Music Group, Common Music Publishing Group and ABKCO Music have filed an amended grievance towards Anthropic over the alleged copying of copyrighted music lyrics by its Claude chatbot.
The publishers filed the Second Amended Criticism on Wednesday (July 22) within the US District Courtroom for the Northern District of California — an expanded model of the identical amended grievance they first put ahead in Might.
It updates the case they first introduced in October 2023, which covers round 500 songs and is the primary of two separate copyright lawsuits the group has filed towards Anthropic.
Their second, separate go well with, filed in January 2026, covers greater than 20,000 songs and seeks over $3 billion over Anthropic‘s alleged torrenting of lyrics from pirate “shadow” libraries.
The amended grievance additionally lands as Anthropic works by a separate $1.5 billion settlement it agreed in September 2025 with a bunch of authors over its use of pirated books to coach Claude.
The 71-page pleading attracts closely on Anthropic‘s personal inner data, obtained by discovery, to help the infringement claims.
It seeks to carry Anthropic chargeable for what the grievance calls the “systematic and widespread infringement of their copyrighted music lyrics” by the coaching and operation of its Claude AI fashions.
The submitting states that Anthropic co-founder and chief compute officer Tom Brown as soon as queried “@Claude what are the lyrics to desolation row by Dylan?” in an inner report.
The question references the Bob Dylan composition Desolation Row, one of many works within the go well with.
The grievance additional alleges that Anthropic and the momentary staff it employed to “finetune” its fashions by reinforcement studying prompted Claude with requests for the publishers’ lyrics throughout growth.
The publishers argue this reveals Anthropic “supposed, anticipated, and designed its AI fashions to answer prompts for Publishers’ and others’ lyrics and to repeat the lyrics in output – as a function, not a bug.”
The grievance additionally alleges that Anthropic used extraction instruments to strip copyright notices and different figuring out particulars from lyrics throughout coaching, dismissing that info as “ineffective junk” in inner conversations.
It claims co-founders Ben Mann and Jared Kaplan debated which extraction instruments to make use of in June 2021, in the end selecting one which eliminated copyright notices solely.
The submitting additional alleges that the time period “lyric” appeared in additional than 170,000 Claude immediate and output data throughout a nine-day window in September 2023, the month earlier than the go well with was filed.
The publishers allege that Claude reproduces their lyrics each as coaching enter and in its output to customers, and that it does so even when customers don’t ask for lyrics.
The grievance says that when investigators requested Claude for the phrases to songs together with Roar, I Will Survive, American Pie and What a Fantastic World, the mannequin returned equivalent or near-identical copies.
It provides that Claude additionally produced lyrics in response to prompts that named no music in any respect.
Requested to “write a music in regards to the loss of life of Buddy Holly,” for instance, the mannequin returned the phrases to American Pie.
“ANTHROPIC’S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS NOT INNOVATION; IN LAYMAN’S TERMS, IT’S THEFT.”
CONCORD, UMPG AND ABKCO’S AMENDED COMPLAINT
The publishers say they acknowledge the potential of moral AI, however argue that Anthropic‘s conduct crosses a line.
“In contrast, Anthropic‘s copyright infringement will not be innovation,” the grievance reads. “In layman’s phrases, it’s theft.”
The publishers are in search of statutory damages of as much as $150,000 per work.
In January 2025, the court docket accredited a stipulation requiring Anthropic to take care of “guardrails” meant to cease Claude from reproducing copyrighted lyrics in its outputs.
In March 2025, Decide Eumi Ok. Lee denied the publishers’ request for a preliminary injunction that will have barred Anthropic from coaching on their lyrics, discovering any hurt could possibly be compensated with cash damages.
The identical set of orders granted the publishers discovery, requiring Anthropic handy over a pattern of Claude immediate and output data – the fabric now cited all through the amended grievance.
The publishers have since narrowed the case towards Anthropic to direct infringement and the alleged elimination of copyright administration info, dropping earlier contributory and vicarious infringement claims.
They moved for partial abstract judgment in March 2026, asking the court docket to reject Anthropic‘s truthful use protection forward of trial.
Anthropic is contesting the case and has argued that coaching Claude on copyrighted materials quantities to truthful use.
Anthropic had not publicly responded to the amended grievance on the time of writing.
Anthropic‘s valuation has risen for the reason that case started.
The corporate confidentially filed for an preliminary public providing in June 2026, days after a $65 billion funding spherical valued it at $965 billion.
That valuation lifted Anthropic above rival OpenAI for the primary time.
Anthropic mentioned its run-rate income crossed $47 billion in Might.
The amended grievance is one in all a number of actions the music trade has introduced towards Anthropic.
BMG filed a 3rd go well with in March 2026, citing 493 compositions and alleging the AI agency had constructed its enterprise on unlicensed works.
Elsewhere in AI litigation, Sony Music filed a brand new lawsuit towards AI music platform Udio on Monday (July 20).
Udio’s competitor Suno faces increasing infringement claims from Common and Sony.Music Enterprise Worldwide
