The owners of Elvis Presley’s music have sued Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI chatbot. They claim Anthropic trained its models on 274 Presley songs without permission and are seeking about $41 million in damages.
The complaint was filed on Friday, October 23, according to Billboard. It is one of the first major lawsuits brought by a famous artist’s estate against an AI company.
Who is suing
The case is led by Authentic Brands Group, the licensing company that controls Presley’s music and likeness, along with other rights holders. Rolling Stone lists the case as ABE EPE LLC v. Anthropic.
The plaintiffs are represented by Richard Busch, the lawyer who won the Marvin Gaye estate’s “Blurred Lines” case against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams.
What the lawsuit claims
The suit makes three main claims:
- Training without permission. Anthropic allegedly used 274 copyrighted Presley songs to train Claude. These include classics such as “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “All Shook Up,” and “Don’t Be Cruel.”
- Infringing output. The complaint says Claude can produce material that copies songs from catalogs available online.
- Guardrails don’t work. Anthropic reportedly added safeguards, but the suit says Claude still recreated songs when asked to update them “for a modern audience.” The results allegedly kept the same structure and hooks, even with reworded lyrics.
Busch also argues that these AI outputs are unlicensed derivative works, a theory similar to the one he used in the “Blurred Lines” case.
Where the $41 million comes from
The plaintiffs are seeking $150,000 per song, the maximum statutory damage under US copyright law for willful infringement. Across 274 songs, that comes to about $41.1 million.
What Anthropic says
Anthropic had not publicly responded to the lawsuit at the time of writing. Technwz will update this story if the company comments.
Part of a growing fight over AI and music
This is not Anthropic’s first music copyright case. In 2023, music publishers, including Universal Music Publishing Group, sued the company, claiming Claude was trained on song lyrics without a license.
The Elvis case also lands just two days after another one. On October 21, independent music publisher Reservoir sued Anthropic in federal court in Northern California over 853 songs, claiming about $151 million in statutory damages. Anthropic said it disagrees with Reservoir’s allegations and intends to defend that case vigorously.
Record labels and the RIAA have also taken AI music generators Suno and Udio to court. Just last week, the International Confederation of Music Publishers raised concerns that songs by artists such as Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave were used to train AI without their consent.
Why it matters
AI companies have long argued that training on copyrighted material counts as fair use. Cases like this one test that argument in court. The outcome could affect how AI companies license music and other creative work.
The case also comes at a sensitive moment for Anthropic, which is reportedly preparing for an IPO as soon as mid-November.
Source
- Rolling Stone AU: case name, claims, example songs, $150,000 per song
- Vice: plaintiffs and attorney Richard Busch
- Far Out Magazine: October 23 filing date (citing Billboard) and the music publishers’ concerns last week
- OfficeChai: reported IPO timing
- FourWeekMBA: Reservoir lawsuit details and Anthropic’s statement on that case
- NME: confirms no Anthropic comment on the Elvis case yet
