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On October 23, owners of Elvis song rights sued Anthropic in California federal court over lyrics to songs recorded by Elvis Presley. They allege Anthropic copied lyrics without a license to train its AI models and stripped titles and credits during data cleaning. No court has decided any claim.
Reservoir Media Management and two other music publishers sued Anthropic on October 21 in federal court in the Northern District of California. They allege Anthropic copied the lyrics of 853 compositions to train its AI model without a license or payment. Anthropic has not responded in court, and no court has decided the claims.
Matthew Michael Hobbs, the creator behind Puppy Songs, sued Kroger in California federal court over an allegedly unlicensed TikTok video featuring Cheese Tax. The October 19 complaint asserts separate copyright claims for the sound recording and the underlying composition. Hobbs alleges that the song was never available in TikTok's Commercial Music Library.
Songwriter Aviel Calev Hirschfield sued Drake, OVO Sound and two Universal Music entities in Los Angeles federal court on October 16, alleging that Janice STFU copied the chorus of a demo he sent to producers working with Drake. Hirschfield claims the released track reproduces his lyrics, melody and cadence without credit or compensation. Drake's representatives deny the allegations and say he wrote the song. The complaint seeks damages and profits attributable to the alleged infringement.
Warner Music Group labels and publishers filed a New York federal lawsuit against Luxottica companies behind Ray-Ban, Oakley and other eyewear brands. The October 9 complaint alleges that promotional videos used at least 427 copyrighted recordings and compositions without permission, including music associated with Dua Lipa, Charli xcx and Bruno Mars.
Pharrell Williams and Talamasca asked a Los Angeles federal court to dismiss Chad Hugo's copyright claims in the dispute between the longtime Neptunes collaborators. Their October 6 motion argues that Hugo's second amended complaint does not adequately identify the works he claims to co-own or distinguish rights in musical compositions from rights in sound recordings. The filing seeks dismissal of the federal claims and, if they fall, dismissal without prejudice of the remaining state-law claims.
USA TODAY and 13 affiliated publishing entities sued seven OpenAI entities in Manhattan federal court on October 8. The complaint alleges that OpenAI copied their journalism without permission for model training and reproduced protected content in its products. The publishers seek more than $250 million in damages, an injunction and destruction of models and training sets that incorporate their content.
Laffapalooza sued Apple, Tubi, distributor Urban Home Entertainment, and producer Marcus Joseph King over allegedly unauthorized streaming of its comedy films, including Jamie Foxx Presents Laffapalooza. The October 2 Georgia federal complaint alleges that King licensed the works to the distributor without authority and that the films then appeared on streaming platforms. Laffapalooza also asks the court to resolve its ownership dispute with King. The claims have not been decided.
Mattie Music Group, the publisher of Bill Withers' catalog, filed a federal copyright lawsuit over Olivia Dean's I've Seen It. The complaint alleges that the song copies protected melody from Just the Two of Us and names Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony, and Kobalt entities as defendants. Dean and her co-writers are not defendants.
Universal Music Group companies sued DistroKid in Delaware federal court, alleging that the distributor continued placing infringing recordings on streaming services and misrepresented its approach to artificial intelligence content and fraud.
Melissa Mais filed a Virginia federal lawsuit against dancehall artist Masicka, whose legal name is Javaun Nicholas Fearon, alleging that she wrote material connected to four of his songs and that her work was used without permission or compensation.
Round Hill Music and affiliated companies filed separate federal copyright lawsuits against Suno and Anthropic, alleging unauthorized use of songs and recordings to develop and operate their artificial intelligence systems.