A coalition of major music publishers, led by Universal Music Publishing Group alongside Concord Music Group and ABKCO Music, has filed a sweeping second copyright lawsuit against AI giant Anthropic, seeking over $3 billion in statutory damages for the alleged infringement of more than 20,000 songs. The filing, submitted January 28 in the Northern District of California, dwarfs the publishers’ original 2023 suit, which covered roughly 500 works and sought around $75 million.
Copyright Infringement Allegations Against Anthropic
The new complaint centers on two distinct allegations. First, that Anthropic’s founders actively pirated millions of books—including songbooks containing protected lyrics—via BitTorrent from the shadow library LibGen in 2021. Specifically, co-founder Benjamin Mann allegedly downloaded approximately five million pirated titles. CEO Dario Amodei reportedly authorized the activity despite privately acknowledging LibGen as “sketchy” and his own team flagging it as a copyright violation. Second, the suit argues that Anthropic continues to infringe by using protected lyrics to train its newer Claude AI models without licensing agreements in place.
The publishers only uncovered the torrenting activities in July 2025, when a separate court ruling in an unrelated case inadvertently exposed Anthropic’s use of pirate library sources. Their earlier attempt to fold these claims into the original lawsuit was blocked by a judge, forcing this standalone filing.
Lawsuit Hits as Company Reaches $350 Billion Valuation
The case arrives at a notable moment for Anthropic — the company’s valuation has skyrocketed from roughly $5 billion in 2023 to approximately $350 billion today, making the potential damages more than a symbolic threat. Anthropic has also recently settled a separate author-related piracy case for $1.5 billion. Well-known songs cited in the complaint include “Bennie and the Jets,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Wild Horses,” “Eye of the Tiger,” “Radioactive,” and “Viva La Vida.” The company has yet to issue a public response.
Music Business Worldwide – Murray Stassen – January 28, 2026