Elvis Presley's rights holders sue Anthropic, seeking $41.1 million over AI training on 274 songs
Authentic Brands Group and other owners of Elvis Presley's music filed suit on Oct. 23, alleging Anthropic used the lyrics of 274 songs without permission to train its Claude models and that Claude still produces infringing versions.
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The owners of Elvis Presley's music have sued Anthropic, alleging the AI company used his copyrighted lyrics without permission to train its models and generates infringing versions of his songs. According to NBC News, the lawsuit was filed on Friday, Oct. 23.
The plaintiffs are led by Authentic Brands Group, the licensing platform that controls Presley's intellectual property, along with other companies, trusts and individuals that own rights to his music. They accuse Anthropic of infringing copyrights in 274 songs without any license or payment, including "All Shook Up," "Can't Help Falling in Love," "Don't Be Cruel," "A Little Less Conversation" and "Return to Sender."
The complaint alleges the infringement occurred throughout "the entire development" of Anthropic's flagship Claude models and continues as users generate outputs that reproduce lyrics or create unauthorized adaptations. It says that when Claude was recently asked to re-create specific songs "for a modern audience," the results kept "landing very close to the originals: same structure, same hooks reused with light rewording." The plaintiffs also argue that even after Anthropic added guardrails following earlier lawsuits, "Claude continues to infringe."
The rights holders are seeking $41.1 million in statutory damages, up to $150,000 for each of the 274 works they say were willfully infringed. They also want a permanent injunction and an order requiring Anthropic to destroy all unauthorized copies of the works.
"We disagree with the claims and intend to defend this case fully," an Anthropic spokesperson said.
Last year Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with authors who alleged it used pirated books to train its models, the largest copyright settlement in US history. Universal Music, Concord and ABKCO have expanded a lyrics lawsuit against the company, and BMG, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have filed similar suits this year, part of a widening legal push by the music industry against AI developers.
Sources: NBC News, Pitchfork. Image: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty (via NBC News).
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