Anthropic urges judge to deem lyric training fair use
Anthropic asked U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee in San Jose to rule that its use of millions of song lyrics to train the Claude chatbot is protected under the fair‑use doctrine. The company’s lawyer Sonal Mehta of WilmerHale argued that the training creates transformative content that supports scientific, business and educational progress.
Key points
- Anthropic asked a California judge to rule its lyric training for Claude is fair use.
- Publishers say Claude generated nearly 120,000 synthetic lyric requests in six months, potentially harming the market.
- The fair‑use decision could affect dozens of AI copyright lawsuits across the industry.
Music publishers including Universal Music Group, Concord and ABKCO, represented by Matt Oppenheim of Oppenheim + Zebrak, countered that Claude generated nearly 120,000 requests for synthetic lyrics over a six‑month period and could overwhelm the market for human‑written lyrics. The publishers claim Anthropic’s training misuses copyrighted material and harms songwriters, though Mehta said no specific market harm has been identified and that UMG has called AI a net positive for the industry.
The fair‑use question is seen as pivotal for dozens of other copyright lawsuits targeting AI firms such as OpenAI and Meta, following split rulings by judges William Alsup and Vince Chhabria in earlier cases.
Anthropic, music publishers square off on ‘fair use’ defence in AI copyright case
straitstimes.com · 21 October 2026
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