Music publishers strike controversial deal with Anthropic over song lyrics

In the United States, a significant legal development occurred on January 2, 2025, as music publishers, including Universal Music Group and Concord Music Group, reached a partial agreement with AI company Anthropic amid an ongoing copyright lawsuit. The legal battle began in 2023 when several music publishers accused Anthropic of copyright infringement for using copyrighted lyrics to train its AI model, Claude. They asserted that the model had been trained with requests for specific song lyrics, including those from well-known artists such as Beyoncé and Don McLean. The complaint highlighted that Anthropic's training methods allegedly infringed on the rights of over 500 copyrighted songs. Following the publishers' allegations, a U.S. district judge intervened and approved an agreement that mandated Anthropic to uphold its existing safeguards. These measures would prevent Claude from generating any content derived from copyrighted material owned by the publishers, ensuring that the AI system could not create new lyrics or content based on protected works. Under the terms of the agreement, the music publishers are entitled to notify Anthropic if the existing safeguards fail, holding the AI company accountable for any future misuse of copyrighted content. This ongoing legal matter underscores the complex relationship between AI technology and intellectual property rights, raising critical questions for the music industry regarding how such technologies are developed and utilized. Moreover, this case reflects broader concerns about AI's role in the creative sectors, a topic that has been increasingly prominent as technology companies explore ways to leverage existing cultural products. In December 2023, similar issues arose as Anthropic and other companies faced allegations of using vast libraries of movies and television shows for AI training. In response to these developments, the Writers Guild of America urged studios to take steps against AI-driven plagiarism, highlighting the need for clarity and protections around intellectual property in the age of artificial intelligence.