Elvis Presley Catalog Owners Sue Anthropic for $41 Million Over AI Training

The plaintiffs include Authentic Brands Group, Raleigh Music Publishing, several trusts and at least one individual. They accuse Anthropic of bypassing DRM protections and of removing or altering copyright management information on 247 songs, among them Don't Be Cruel, Can't Help Falling in Love and A Little Less Conversation.

"The Elvis Plaintiffs bring this action to enforce these exclusive rights against the Defendant that has built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before," lead attorney Richard Busch wrote in the complaint. He added that the catalog "contains some of the most influential and enduring musical compositions in human history." The filing states that Presley sold more than a billion records and that his works are among the most valuable in the world.

Anthropic faces several other suits over its training practices. Sony and Warner recently sued the company for what they described as a "blatant violation" of copyright law involving thousands of works, and Universal Music and Concord Music Group filed a similar claim over the alleged downloading and training on 20,000 copyrighted songs. Each of those lawsuits seeks damages in the billions of dollars.

The Presley case centers on a single artist who died nearly 50 years ago, long before generative AI existed, and the $41 million sought for one catalog illustrates the potential cost of the claims for AI developers. Anthropic has previously argued that training its models on copyrighted music amounts to "fair use." In a brief statement to The New York Times, the company said it disagrees with the claims and intends to defend itself in the case.