Anthropic Reaches Settlement in Copyright Lawsuit Over Song Lyrics

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI model, has reached a settlement with several music publishers to resolve part of a copyright infringement lawsuit.  In October 2023, Universal Music Group, ABKCO, Concord Music Group, and Greg Nelson Music filed the lawsuit, accusing Anthropic of using protected song lyrics to train its AI model without proper licensing. The lawsuit claimed that Claude provided song lyrics, including those from hits like Beyoncé’s “Halo” and Maroon 5’s “Moves like Jagger,” when prompted.  The music publishers argued that, while sites like Genius share lyrics, they pay licensing fees, unlike Anthropic, which allegedly removed copyright management information when gathering data for its training process. The settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee, requires Anthropic to maintain the guardrails it has already put in place to prevent copyright infringement in its AI models. The company will also apply these protections to any future models it develops.  Furthermore, Anthropic and the music publishers will collaborate to address instances where the guardrails may not be effective, with the court ready to resolve any disputes.  In response to the settlement, Anthropic emphasized that its AI models are not designed to infringe on copyrights and that it has processes in place to prevent such violations.  The company also affirmed its belief that using copyrighted materials in training generative AI models constitutes fair use under existing copyright law. However, the music publishers are still seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent Anthropic from using their song lyrics in future AI training.  A court ruling on this request is expected in the coming months as the debate over AI and copyright law continues to unfold.