Overview
- Universal Music Group, Concord and other publishers filed a new federal lawsuit alleging Anthropic built datasets by torrenting lyrics, sheet music and compositions from illegal shadow libraries.
- The complaint names CEO Dario Amodei and co‑founder Benjamin Mann as defendants, asserting executive-level responsibility for the alleged infringement.
- Plaintiffs describe the conduct as willful and say statutory damages for the works at issue could exceed $3 billion, characterizing the case as among the largest non‑class action copyright suits.
- The filing expands earlier publisher litigation after discovery in Bartz v. Anthropic, which plaintiffs say revealed thousands of additional unauthorized downloads.
- Judge William Alsup previously ruled that model training on copyrighted content can be lawful but acquiring works via piracy is not, a distinction the publishers say Anthropic violated; the company did not immediately comment and has previously denied infringement.