Elvis rightsholders sue Anthropic over 274 song copyrights
The King’s Legacy in Code: AI Faces Copyright Battle Over Elvis Presley’s Music
The world of music and artificial intelligence is currently embroiled in a major legal showdown, as the estate of musician Elvis Presley has launched a lawsuit against the AI company Anthropic. The action accuses the tech giant of using 274 of Presley’s songs to train its large language models without obtaining the necessary permissions or compensation.
This landmark legal effort, filed by a subsidiary of Authentic Brands Group—a company that controls much of Presley’s intellectual property, including his name, image, and likeness—targets the core of how AI models are built. The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic, the developer behind the highly capable Claude chatbot, built its entire business model on the copyright infringement of these musical compositions.
The dispute centers on specific classics, including iconic hits such as Can’t Help Falling In Love, All Shook Up, Don’t Be Cruel, and A Little Less Conversation. The lawsuit claims that the copyrighted compositions and lyrics were used to train the AI models, which subsequently enabled the technology to generate unauthorized versions of existing songs.
Legal counsel for the plaintiffs argues that Anthropic has built a business on copyright infringement at a scale never before seen. Richard Busch, lead attorney for the Presley plaintiffs, stated that the action is designed to enforce these exclusive rights against a defendant that has leveraged copyrighted material to create its technology.
The allegations are severe. The suit further claims that Claude continued to reproduce copyrighted material even after Anthropic introduced safeguards designed to prevent the chatbot from generating existing song lyrics. When prompted to recreate songs for a modern audience, the AI allegedly produced material that closely resembled the originals.
The financial stakes are significant. The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each of the 274 songs, totaling approximately $41.1 million. This represents a massive claim aimed at setting boundaries for how creative works can be used in the age of generative AI.
This case is part of a broader, escalating fight over copyright and AI. It joins numerous similar actions where music publishers, including Universal Music Publishing Group and Sony Music Publishing, have sued Anthropic for reproducing copyrighted lyrics without authorization. Other lawsuits have targeted companies for using works by artists like The Beatles, Taylor Swift, and Michael Jackson in training AI models.
The implications extend beyond the Presley case. Legal challenges across the industry reveal a growing demand for stronger safeguards. In the UK, artists like Paul McCartney, Elton John, and Dua Lipa are actively campaigning for greater protection against the unauthorized use of their work by AI firms.
Meanwhile, musicians like Jason Isbell have also taken legal action against AI music generator Suno, alleging that the tool allows users to imitate their unique identities and musical styles without consent. These legal battles underscore a critical tension: balancing the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence with the fundamental rights of creators to control their intellectual property.
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