The Defense of Man-Made Music: Anthropic, Copyright Infringement, and Lawsuits

The saga between Anthropic and Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO seems to be coming to a final head, with lawsuits being filed again for infringement in January of 2026. AI research and training company Anthropic has been accused of downloading copyrighted song lyrics into a central library, and furthermore using that material to educate its artificial intelligence system, Claude, to be able to produce similarly sounding songs.

Anthropic has been charged with up to $3 billion worth of damages for these infringements, with over 20,000 lyrics being cited as stolen, and among 700 others works in totality. Despite this alarming number, it is not guaranteed that they’ll be found liable, as the first lawsuit was dismissed by the higher courts, almost a year previously, in March of 2025, with a simple order to implement guardrails for the AI.

This time, Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO name the founders of Anthropic directly in the lawsuit, pointing the finger at them, not the machine, for stealing copyrighted work. This escalation and distinction is important; they are making a statement. Behind every action, good or bad, is a human. Behind every song, good or bad, should be a human.

This lawsuit is necessary in not only protecting the rights of music made, but also the rights of the music-making process.