A federal judge has denied music publishers’ attempt to expand their copyright lawsuit against Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot. Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music, and ABKCO Music had sought to add claims that Anthropic used pirated materials via BitTorrent to train its model. However, Judge Eumi Lee ruled the amendment inappropriate, citing the publishers’ failure to investigate the allegations.
Original Lawsuit and Piracy Allegations
The original lawsuit, filed in 2023, accuses Anthropic of copyright infringement. Publishers claim Claude regurgitated copyrighted lyrics, implying the chatbot was trained on protected content without permission. In August, they argued that Anthropic had hidden its use of BitTorrent, citing evidence from a separate lawsuit filed by book authors. Despite these claims, Judge Lee found the motion to amend came too late and lacked sufficient legal basis
Nevertheless, the publishers did secure a partial victory. On October 6, Judge Lee allowed them to pursue claims that Anthropic may be liable when users generate copyrighted lyrics using Claude. According to Billboard, Anthropic called the proposed amendment an attempt to “fundamentally transform this case at the eleventh hour.” The company argued that publishers had enough time to uncover the torrenting activity through standard legal procedures.
Implications for AI and Copyright Law
This ruling addresses secondary liability and DMCA violations. Judge Lee noted that Anthropic may have profited from infringement while relying on “guardrails” to manage copyright risks. Although Anthropic previously succeeded in dismissing parts of the case, this decision keeps the core claims alive.
While the court rejected the expanded piracy claims, the lawsuit remains a pivotal test of copyright law in the age of AI. With Anthropic recently settling a $1.5 billion case with authors, and other tech giants like OpenAI and Meta facing similar challenges, the outcome could shape how AI models are trained. For creators and developers alike, the stakes continue to rise.
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