Sony Music and Warner Chappell sue Anthropic over training data, seek billions
31 August 2026 · filed under 734058f6b7eb
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell filed suit against Anthropic in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking damages tied to the company’s use of copyrighted works in training its AI models. The Verge AI reports the publishers are pursuing claims covering “tens of thousands” of copyrighted works, with requested damages of up to $150,000 per work under statutory copyright provisions.
The filing also seeks separate damages, up to $25,000 per instance, for cases where the publishers allege identifiable copyright management information was stripped from works before or during their use in training data. Taken together, The Verge AI notes, the total exposure could reach several billion dollars if a court rules in the publishers’ favor and awards the maximum statutory amounts on all counts.
The suit adds Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell to a growing list of rights holders pursuing legal action against Anthropic over its training practices. The Verge AI’s report characterizes this filing as the latest in a continuing sequence of such actions, though the story material provided does not specify further detail on prior suits or their outcomes.
No response from Anthropic is included in the available reporting. The case remains in its filing stage in the Northern District of California, with no rulings yet reported on the claims or the requested damages.