Sony, Warner and other publishers sue Anthropic (August 28, 2026) — up to $150,000 per song, CEO named
Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music and other music publishers — 35 plaintiffs by Korean reporting — sued Anthropic in California federal court on Friday, August 28, 2026, alleging it used tens of thousands of copyrighted compositions without permission to train its Claude models. Co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann were named as defendants alongside the company. The complaint calls the conduct one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history and cites specific works including Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You, Taylor Swift's Paper Rings, Ain't No Mountain High Enough and Eye of the Tiger. The publishers seek a jury trial, statutory damages of up to 150,000 dollars per infringed composition, and up to 25,000 dollars per alleged removal of copyright management information. Anthropic said it disagrees and will defend itself in court. The suit arrives while the company is reported to be preparing an IPO
The three lines
- Who — Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell and others (35 plaintiffs per Korean reporting), filed August 28
- What — tens of thousands of compositions allegedly used for training. Amodei and Mann named personally
- How much — up to $150,000 per infringed composition, plus up to $25,000 per CMI removal
Key questions
- Why are Sony and Warner suing Anthropic?
- **They allege Claude was trained on compositions they control, without permission.** Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music are not record labels — they are **publishers**, which means they administer the rights in **lyrics and musical compositions**, not in recordings. So this case is not about audio files; it is about **the works themselves**, which exist as text and notation and therefore sit squarely in the path of language-model training. The plaintiffs allege Anthropic obtained millions of pirated books via torrent, and that lyrics and sheet music for commercial songs were inside that corpus. Specific works named include **All I Want for Christmas Is You**, **Paper Rings**, **Ain't No Mountain High Enough** and **Eye of the Tiger**. Anthropic said it **disagrees with the publishers' claims and intends to defend itself robustly in court.**
- How large could the damages be?
- **The structure is up to $150,000 per work multiplied by tens of thousands of works.** The publishers seek two things: statutory damages of **up to 150,000 dollars per infringed composition**, and **up to 25,000 dollars for each alleged removal of copyright management information**. US statutory damages do not require proving actual loss, and the ceiling rises to 150,000 dollars per work where infringement is found **wilful**. Because the calculation is multiplicative, **the number of works is effectively the number.** The CMI element refers to rights and licensing markers attached to a work — stripping them while assembling a training corpus is alleged as a separate violation. One caution: **a demand is not an award.** The eventual figure depends on how many works are found infringed, whether wilfulness is established, and whether the case settles.
- How serious is this for Anthropic?
- **Three features make it heavier than earlier suits.** ① **The CEO is personally named** — Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann are defendants alongside the company, a construction typically aimed at establishing wilfulness. ② **Timing** — reporting has repeatedly described Anthropic as preparing an IPO, and unresolved litigation becomes a disclosed risk factor in that process. ③ **The complaint targets an already-decided line.** In earlier book litigation, US courts accepted that training on **lawfully purchased** books can be fair use, while holding that **using pirated copies** was infringement — a finding that led to a large settlement. That is why this complaint emphasises torrents so heavily: it plants the case on the side of the line that already won. The boundary itself is covered in "What fair use means for AI training data."
On Friday, August 28, 2026, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music and other music publishers sued Anthropic in California federal court. Korean reporting put the plaintiff count at 35.
The allegation compresses to one sentence: tens of thousands of compositions were used, without permission, to train Claude.
1. Who is suing, and over what
One distinction has to come first. Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell are not record labels.
| Type | Rights administered | Subject of this case |
|---|---|---|
| Record label | Recordings (masters) | ✕ |
| Publisher | Lyrics and compositions | ○ |
So the claim is not about audio files. It is about the works themselves, which exist as text and notation — and therefore land directly in the path of language-model training.
Named works include:
- Mariah Carey — All I Want for Christmas Is You
- Taylor Swift — Paper Rings
- Ain't No Mountain High Enough
- Eye of the Tiger
The plaintiffs allege Anthropic downloaded millions of pirated books via torrent and that lyrics and sheet music for commercial songs were inside that corpus. The complaint describes the conduct as one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.
Anthropic said it disagrees with the publishers' claims and intends to defend itself robustly in court.
2. The damages structure
| Claim | Ceiling |
|---|---|
| Statutory damages per infringed composition | up to $150,000 |
| Per removal of copyright management information | up to $25,000 |
| Trial requested | Jury |
US statutory damages do not require proving actual loss, and the ceiling rises to 150,000 dollars per work where infringement is found wilful. Because the calculation multiplies, the number of works found infringed is effectively the number.
The second item, copyright management information (CMI), refers to the rights and licensing markers attached to a work. Stripping them while building a training corpus is alleged as a separate violation.
One caution belongs here: a demand is not an award. The eventual figure turns on how many works are found infringed, whether wilfulness is established, and whether the parties settle.
3. Why this suit is heavier than the last ones
| Feature | Detail | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals named | Dario Amodei (CEO), Benjamin Mann (co-founder) | Naming individuals behind the corporate form targets wilfulness |
| Timing | Filed amid IPO-preparation reporting | Unresolved litigation becomes a disclosed risk factor |
| Legal theory | Torrents emphasised throughout | Plants the case on the side of the line that already won |
The third row deserves the detail. In earlier book litigation, US courts split the question in two.
| How the training data was obtained | Court's treatment |
|---|---|
| Lawfully purchased books | Fair use available |
| Pirated copies | Infringement — leading to a large settlement |
That is why the word "torrent" recurs in this complaint. The plaintiffs are not trying to relitigate whether training is transformative. That argument has already been lost once. They are placing this case on the favourable side of a boundary that has already been drawn.
How that boundary was drawn is covered in "What fair use means for AI training data — why bought books count and downloaded ones do not."
4. Anthropic's August, as this page recorded it
- August 26 — Q2 revenue of 11.6 billion dollars, ahead of OpenAI for the first time
- August 26 — 2.6 billion dollars of Anthropic stake gains inside Salesforce's profit jump
- August 27 — A court ruled the Pentagon's "supply chain risk" designation of Anthropic unlawful
- August 28 — Music publishers file suit
A record quarter, a win against the government, and a major copyright case in the same month. For a company preparing to go public, those three point in three different directions.
5. What is still unresolved
- Plaintiff count — 35 comes from Korean reporting and was not checked against the complaint.
- Work count — The exact number behind "tens of thousands" was not confirmed from the filing.
- Total damages — This page states no aggregate; the figures described are the per-work ceiling multiplied out.
- Scope of defendants — Whether Benjamin Mann is named on all counts or some was not confirmed.
- IPO — Timing and size have not been formally announced.
Sources
- TechCrunch — Sony Music, Warner sue Anthropic, alleging a 'brazen campaign' of intellectual property theft
- Axios — Sony, Warner sue Anthropic, alleging "blatant theft" of intellectual property
- Variety — Sony, Warner Sue Anthropic for Allegedly Illegally Training Claude
- Music Business Worldwide — Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell sue Anthropic in multi-billion dollar lawsuit
- Edaily — Sony and 35 others sue Anthropic over unauthorised training on lyrics and sheet music