AI company Anthropic Initial legal victories in copyright disputes with several music publishers.U.S. Federal Judge Denies Preliminary InjunctionThe ban would have restricted Anthropic's use of copyrighted lyrics for AI training.
According to Reuters,U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee ruled that Universal Music Group's (UMG), Concord's and ABKCO's claims were overbroad,And these publishers have failed to show that Anthropic's use of the lyrics caused them "irreparable harm.".
These music publishers filed a lawsuit in 2023 thatAllegations that Anthropic used unauthorized lyrics from at least 500 songs to train its artificial intelligence chatbot Claude, thereby infringing their copyrights. The publishers claimed that this unauthorized use could undermine their licensing market.
In her decision, Judge Eumi Lee stated that.The publishers' argument is essentially asking the court to draw a line in the sand for the licensing market for AI trainingBut the central premise -- whether such use constitutes "fair use" under U.S. copyright law -- is itself an unsettled legal question. She said, "Publishers are essentially asking the courts to define the contours of the market for AI training licenses in the absence of clarity on the fundamental issue of 'fair use'."
Anthropic welcomed the ruling, with a company spokesperson saying they were satisfied that the court did not grant the publisher's "disruptive and ambiguous request". In response, the music publishers expressed confidence that their overall case would ultimately end in a favorable outcome.
The case is one of multiple ongoing lawsuits alleging that AI companies are misusing copyrighted material, including the works of authors, news organizations, and visual artists, in the training of AI systems without permission or payment.
Tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta insist that their use of the material falls under the category of "fair use" because it helps create new, transformative content.
In early March, Anthropic raised $3.5 billion in a Series E round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the company at $61.5 billion (note: the current exchange rate is about RMB 446.633 billion). The funding comes just a few months after Anthropic received more than $1 billion from tech giant Google.