USElvis Presley's catalog owners sue Anthropic for $41.1 million, saying Claude reproduces 274 songs almost verbatim

The owners of Elvis Presley's music, led by Authentic Brands Group, have sued Anthropic for copyright infringement in US federal court.

According to MusicTech and The New York Times, the complaint filed Oct 23 in the Northern District of California says Anthropic trained on 274 Presley songs without permission and seeks the $150,000-per-song statutory maximum, or $41.1 million; other claims bring the total to $48.6 million.

The plaintiffs allege that even after Anthropic added guardrails following earlier suits, Claude reproduced songs' structure and hooks when asked to recreate them "for a modern audience," and described its output as "landing very close to the originals." Anthropic says it disagrees and will defend the case.