BMG sues Anthropic for infringement, alleging AI agency’s $380B valuation was constructed on ‘stolen copyrighted works’
BMG Rights Administration has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in opposition to Anthropic, the AI large behind the Claude AI chatbot.
The Bertelsmann-owned music firm alleges that Anthropic unlawfully copied and used its compositions, together with lyrics, to coach its giant language fashions.
The 47-page grievance, filed on Tuesday (March 17) within the Northern District of California, cites 493 allegedly infringed musical compositions, together with What a Great World, Kryptonite, You Can’t All the time Get What You Need, Uptown Funk, Sympathy for the Satan, and extra.
BMG alleges that Claude has reproduced lyrics from its compositions in its outputs, and that Anthropic torrented pirated books containing its works from unlawful “shadow” libraries.
The submitting claims that Anthropic “has unlawfully copied, ready by-product works primarily based on, and distributed musical compositions owned by BMG, amongst huge quantities of different copyrighted works”.
It provides: “In so doing, Anthropic has blatantly violated the copyright legal guidelines and precipitated direct hurt to BMG and the songwriters it proudly represents. Generations of inventors have introduced revolutionary new merchandise to market whereas complying with copyright regulation. Anthropic’s fast improvement of its new expertise isn’t any excuse for its egregious law-breaking.”
A BMG spokesperson informed MBW as we speak (Wednesday, March 18): “As detailed in our summons and grievance, Anthropic’s observe of coaching AI fashions on copyrighted works sourced from unauthorized torrent websites, amongst different acts, stands in direct opposition to the requirements required of any accountable participant within the AI neighborhood. Anthropic is knowingly partaking in widespread and systematic infringement.
“Defending the rights of those that entrust their life’s work to BMG is important. Constructing an business on the backs of our songwriters, recording artists, and producers, with out permission or compensation, is rarely acceptable.
“We imagine that, with applicable permissions, generative AI can function a device to reinforce creativity moderately than change it, and that completely different segments of the music business might profit from it in several methods. Nonetheless, copyright safety and truthful remuneration are non-negotiable.”
The lawsuit, which you’ll be able to learn in full right here, is the most recent to be filed in opposition to Anthropic by a serious music writer.
A grievance was introduced by Common Music Publishing Group, Harmony, and ABKCO in October 2023, and a second, considerably expanded motion was filed by the identical plaintiffs in January 2026, masking greater than 20,000 songs with potential statutory damages exceeding $3 billion.
BMG, which notes within the submitting that it controls rights to just about 4 million musical compositions, brings 5 claims in opposition to Anthropic: direct copyright infringement via coaching and outputs; direct infringement by way of torrenting; contributory infringement; vicarious infringement; and elimination or alteration of copyright administration info (CMI).
The grievance alleges that Anthropic scraped copyrighted lyrics from the web and torrented pirated books — together with songbooks and sheet music — from unlawful shadow libraries similar to Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror.
BMG claims Anthropic then used extraction instruments to strip copyright-identifying info from these works earlier than feeding them into Claude’s coaching information. In accordance with the submitting, Anthropic considered such info as “ineffective junk” or “boilerplate.”
“Anthropic’s founders claimed to be beginning a unique form of firm, one with AI security and analysis on the forefront that might mitigate AI’s dangers. However in its pursuit of these objectives, Anthropic ran roughshod over the rights of numerous creatives and rightsholders.”
BMG authorized Submitting
The grievance states: “Anthropic’s founders claimed to be beginning a unique form of firm, one with AI security and analysis on the forefront that might mitigate AI’s dangers. However in its pursuit of these objectives, Anthropic ran roughshod over the rights of numerous creatives and rightsholders.”
It provides: “Anthropic pays nothing to BMG, its songwriters, or the numerous variety of different copyright homeowners Anthropic has illegally exploited to coach Claude and create infringing outputs.”
BMG additionally alleges that Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei “personally mentioned and licensed” the torrenting of pirated books from Library Genesis, and that Amodei opted for torrenting over correctly licensing copyrighted works to keep away from a “authorized/observe/enterprise slog.”
The submitting states that BMG despatched Anthropic a stop and desist letter in December 2025, to which the AI firm “by no means responded.” Anthropic has not but publicly commented on the lawsuit.
The grievance references Anthropic’s most not too long ago disclosed valuation of $380 billion, following a $30 billion Collection G funding spherical introduced in February 2026, and cites run-rate income of $14 billion — a determine that, based on the submitting, has grown greater than tenfold yearly in every of the previous three years.
BMG has requested for its case to be heard by the identical choose overseeing two different pending music writer actions in opposition to Anthropic within the Northern District of California.
In October 2025, a choose denied Anthropic’s movement to dismiss the UMPG/Harmony/ABKCO case.
Anthropic beforehand settled a separate AI coaching lawsuit introduced by a gaggle of authors for $1.5 billion.
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