Anthropic Wins Initial Legal Battle in AI Copyright Case

Anthropic has secured an early legal victory in a copyright dispute with several music publishers, including Universal Music Group. According to Reuters, a California federal judge rejected a preliminary injunction that would have restricted Anthropic's use of copyrighted lyrics to train its AI chatbot, Claude.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023, alleges that Anthropic used lyrics from over 500 songs without permission. U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee ruled that the publishers' request was overly broad and failed to demonstrate that Anthropic's actions caused them irreparable harm. The publishers argued that the unauthorized use of their lyrics undermined their licensing market.

Judge Lee noted that the publishers were essentially asking the court to define a licensing market for AI training, while the question of fair use under U.S. copyright law remains unresolved. Despite this initial setback, the music publishers expressed confidence in their broader case against Anthropic.