Universal Music Publishing Group has joined with ABKCO and Concord in a legal action against AI tech firm Anthropic.

The music publishers have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in Nashville alleging that Anthropic scrapes their songs without permission and uses them to generate “identical or nearly identical” copies of those lyrics via Claude, an AI rival to Chat GPT.

Matthew J Oppenheim, of Oppenheim & Zebrak, attorney for ABKCO, Concord and UMPG, said: “The unauthorised use of copyrighted material is illegal and, in the case of copyrighted music lyrics, harms songwriters and music publishers. It is well established by copyright law that an entity cannot reproduce, distribute, and display someone else’s copyrighted works to build its own business unless it secures permission from rights-holders. Just like countless other technologies, AI companies must abide by the law.”

Music Week has requested a comment from Anthropic.

The lawsuit is the latest case of the music industry tackling the challenges of AI. 

UMG this week signed an agreement with BandLab Technologies on supporting artists in relation to artificial intelligence. It follows an agreement with YouTube on protecting copyright amid the rise in generative AI.

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