Elvis Presley's Rights Holders Sue Anthropic for AI Training on 274 Songs

Elvis Presley's music rights holders filed a lawsuit on Friday accusing Anthropic of infringing copyrights covering 274 songs without obtaining licenses or paying. The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic trained AI models on copyrighted lyrics without permission and generated infringing versions of Presley's songs. Authentic Brands Group, a licensing platform controlling Presley's intellectual property, joined other companies, trusts and individuals holding rights to Presley's music in bringing the lawsuit.

The complaint seeks $41.1 million in statutory copyright damages. The plaintiffs seek up to $150,000 for each of the 274 works allegedly infringed willfully. The plaintiffs also request a permanent injunction barring further infringement of Presley's works. The plaintiffs want a court order requiring Anthropic to destroy every unauthorized copy of the copyrighted works.

The songs include "All Shook Up," "Can't Help Falling in Love," "Don't Be Cruel," "A Little Less Conversation" and "Return to Sender." The lawsuit describes the plaintiffs' catalog as exceptionally innovative, influential and enduring. Attorney Richard Busch said the plaintiffs are highly protective guardians of Presley's songs.

The plaintiffs allege that infringement occurred throughout development of Anthropic's flagship Claude models and continues through outputs reproducing copyrighted lyrics or making unauthorized song adaptations. The complaint accuses Anthropic of basing the company's business model on copyright infringement of extraordinary scale. The complaint cites alleged large-scale scraping of internet material and book piracy to develop Claude language models.

The rights holders allege that a recent Claude version continues to infringe despite safeguards Anthropic supposedly introduced after facing litigation. The complaint says Claude recently recreated particular songs after requests to adapt the songs for contemporary listeners. The complaint describes outputs retaining the originals' structures and hooks, with minor wording changes and complete verses, choruses and bridges. The complaint argues that these outputs reproduce copyrighted songs rather than merely draw inspiration from the songs, even when wording changes.

An Anthropic spokesperson said the company disagrees with the claims and intends to defend the case fully.

Last year, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a copyright lawsuit brought by authors alleging that Anthropic illegally trained AI models on pirated books. The settlement was the largest ever in a United States copyright case.

The Presley lawsuit joins a broader series of cases accusing Anthropic and other AI companies of using copyrighted music without permission or compensation. Universal Music, Concord Music Group and ABKCO Music broadened an existing lawsuit against Anthropic in January over alleged infringement involving copyrighted lyrics. BMG Rights Management, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music brought similar cases against Anthropic this year.

Independent music publisher Round Hill and independent music company Reservoir Media also recently brought lawsuits against Anthropic and AI music generation company Suno. Busch represents Round Hill and serves as lead attorney for Presley's rights holders.