Elvis Presley Song Rights Holders Sue Anthropic Over AI Training

Elvis Presley Song Rights Holders File Lawsuit Against Anthropic

The owners of rights to much of Elvis Presley's song catalog have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, a major artificial intelligence company, alleging that it used the late singer’s iconic songs without permission to train its AI chatbot, Claude. The complaint was filed on Friday in federal court in San Francisco.

Allegations of Unauthorized Use in AI Song Training

According to the lawsuit, the partnerships controlling 274 of Presley’s most recognized works—including classics like “All Shook Up,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” and “Return To Sender”—claim that Anthropic has not paid for the rights to use these songs. The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic used the songs in its AI development to enhance Claude, its online conversational agent.

Details of Copyright Infringement Accusations

The lawsuit describes Anthropic’s business model as relying on large-scale copyright infringement. The plaintiffs contend that their collection comprises “some of the most groundbreaking, revolutionary, influential, and enduring musical compositions in human history.” Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to Presley, and other legal entities initiated the action, as reported by Billboard.

Anthropic responded through a spokesperson, stating, “We disagree with the claims and intend to defend this case fully.”

Claims of Derivative Songs and Economic Impact

The court filing asserts that Anthropic stored Presley’s songs in a central library intended to be kept indefinitely, using selections from this archive to train successive versions of Claude. As a result, the lawsuit claims, users of Claude can generate new, derivative songs that closely resemble the originals—maintaining song structure, hooks, and verse patterns—without compensating the copyright holders. The plaintiffs argue that this unauthorized reuse “is destroying the value of these works in a matter of a few years with only profit as its motive.”

Broader Context and Legal Demands

The legal action seeks approximately $50 million in damages, along with court costs and attorney fees. The complaint also points out that Anthropic was warned about improper use of copyrighted material but continued the practice. The suit accuses the company of “removing identifying information from those works, and keeping ill-gotten gains for itself.”

Lawyers for the Presley partnerships note that at least half a dozen similar lawsuits are pending in federal court in San Francisco, involving allegations of music works being improperly used in AI training.

Ongoing AI Copyright Dispute in the Music Industry

This lawsuit highlights the contentious debate over the use of copyrighted music in training artificial intelligence models. The Presley song rights holders are the latest to join an industry-wide pushback against what they claim is unauthorized use of creative works, as AI developers use vast data sets to improve their products without securing licenses from copyright owners.

Source: latimes.com.