Rights holders for 274 songs associated with Elvis Presley have sued Anthropic, alleging that the company copied copyrighted lyrics without permission to train its Claude artificial intelligence models and allowed the chatbot to produce infringing versions of the works.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco, brings together Authentic Brands Group, which controls Presley intellectual property, and other companies, trusts and individuals with rights to the compositions. The songs at issue include “All Shook Up,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “A Little Less Conversation” and “Return to Sender.”
The plaintiffs say Anthropic neither obtained licenses nor paid for its use of the works. Their allegations cover both the copying involved in developing Claude and the material the system subsequently generates for users. Anthropic disputes the claims and says it intends to defend the case.
The complaint alleges that Anthropic placed the protected material in a retained central collection, then made additional copies when selecting material to train successive generations of its models. The rights holders contend that the company continued using copyrighted material after receiving notice that its practices were unauthorized.
The lawsuit also challenges Claude’s responses to requests for adaptations of particular songs. The plaintiffs say recent prompts asking the chatbot to remake songs for a modern audience produced versions that remained too close to the protected originals, including their structure, recurring phrases and arrangements of verses and choruses. Those allegations concern generated text and musical compositions, rather than simply the imitation of Presley’s voice.
Restrictions intended to prevent infringing responses have not resolved the problem, the plaintiffs allege. They contend that unauthorized reproductions and adaptations remain possible even in more recent versions of Claude. These are allegations in the complaint, not findings by a court.
The rights holders are seeking statutory copyright damages, including the maximum of $150,000 per work for alleged willful infringement. They also want a permanent injunction against further infringement and an order requiring Anthropic to destroy unauthorized copies of the protected works.
The case joins a growing group of music-publishing disputes involving Anthropic. Universal Music, Concord Music Group and ABKCO Music expanded their lawsuit against the company in January. BMG Rights Management, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have also brought cases this year. Independent publisher Round Hill and music company Reservoir Media have pursued claims as well.
Music copyright can involve separate rights in a composition and in a particular sound recording. The Presley lawsuit centers on rights in the songs and lyrics, a distinction that separates it from disputes focused on copying recorded performances or replicating a singer’s voice.
The complaint places two distinct stages of AI development before the court: the acquisition and copying of training material, and the production of allegedly infringing responses. The requested injunction would address continued use of the Presley works, while the demand to destroy unauthorized copies targets material the plaintiffs say Anthropic has already collected.
Sources: The New York Times, Yahoo, NBC News, Hit Channel