Skip to content

Generated Source Mirror¶

This page is generated from the source Markdown file so it can be viewed inside the MkDocs site.

📝 Page Status: Draft — sourced but not yet reviewed

  • Status: draft
  • Sources: 1
  • Relationships: 4
  • Research debt items: 3

Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC v. Anthropic PBC¶

Summary¶

Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC v. Anthropic PBC, No. 5:26-cv-09217 (N.D. Cal.), is a music-publisher copyright action filed August 28, 2026, against Anthropic PBC, Dario Amodei, and Benjamin Mann. Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell affiliates allege torrenting of books containing lyrics and sheet music, scraping and other copying of compositions to train Claude, output reproduction, and DMCA copyright-management-information removal. The complaint is allegations only; no merits ruling is recorded in the source reviewed here.

Verified Facts¶

  • On August 28, 2026, Sony Music Publishing affiliates and Warner Chappell Music affiliates filed a complaint in the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, No. 5:26-cv-09217, against Anthropic PBC, Dario Amodei, and Benjamin Mann.1
  • Plaintiffs allege they own or control musical compositions including lyrics and sheet music, and that defendants torrented, scraped, and downloaded those works to develop Claude, including by torrenting books from Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror that contained lyrics and sheet music.1
  • The complaint pleads four counts: (I) direct copyright infringement by torrenting against all defendants; (II) contributory infringement by torrenting against Amodei and Mann; (III) direct copyright infringement against Anthropic, including scraping, downloading third-party datasets, destructive scanning, training, and generating verbatim or derivative lyric outputs; and (IV) removal or alteration of copyright management information against Anthropic under 17 U.S.C. § 1202(b).1
  • Plaintiffs demand a jury trial and seek, among other relief, statutory damages up to $150,000 per work under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c), statutory damages up to $25,000 per CMI violation under § 1203(c)(3)(B), injunctive relief, destruction of infringing copies, and an accounting of training data.1
  • The complaint cites Bartz v. Anthropic PBC for the description of Anthropic’s alleged torrenting as piracy at scale, and it refers to the earlier publisher action Concord Music Group, Inc. v. Anthropic PBC and a later Concord docket, No. 5:26-cv-00880.1

Historical Context¶

This filing brings Sony and Warner publishing catalogs into the same Northern District of California lyric-and-piracy cluster already occupied by Concord/UMG publishers and by Bartz’s book-piracy settlement. It is a composition (lyrics/sheet music) case, not a sound-recording case against a music generator such as Suno or Udio.1

Jurisdiction: Northern District of California. Authority level: complaint only. The pleading does not decide § 107. Plaintiffs frame the dispute around alleged pirated acquisition and regurgitation, the same distinction Bartz drew between training copies and a pirated library, but this court has not applied that distinction to these publishers’ works.1

Naming Amodei and Mann as individual torrenting defendants is a different party structure from Concord’s company-only caption in the sources on that page. Treat that as a pleading choice, not a finding of personal liability.

Relationships¶

  • CASE-SONY-V-ANTHROPIC cites SRC-SONY-V-ANTHROPIC-COMPLAINT-2026.
  • CASE-SONY-V-ANTHROPIC related_to TOPIC-AI-MUSIC-COPYRIGHT.
  • CASE-SONY-V-ANTHROPIC related_to CASE-CONCORD-V-ANTHROPIC.
  • CASE-SONY-V-ANTHROPIC related_to CASE-BARTZ-V-ANTHROPIC.

Sources¶

  1. SRC-SONY-V-ANTHROPIC-COMPLAINT-2026: Sony/Warner publisher complaint (Aug. 28, 2026).

Research Debt¶

  • Replace the journalist-hosted PDF with a RECAP/PACER original when available.
  • Add Anthropic’s response, any related-case order, and any motion to dismiss.
  • Concord II is now on CASE-CONCORD-V-ANTHROPIC; BMG is CASE-BMG-V-ANTHROPIC.

Document metadata¶

  • Filing date: 2026-08-28
  • Last verified: 2026-09-02

  1. SRC-SONY-V-ANTHROPIC-COMPLAINT-2026 — Complaint (Aug. 28, 2026). Primary for parties, docket number, counts, and alleged facts. â†©â†©â†©â†©â†©â†©â†©