Authors File Lawsuit Against Anthropic for Copyright Infringement
A group of authors, including Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, have taken legal action against Anthropic, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) company, for alleged copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California – San Francisco Division, accuses Anthropic of engaging in widespread copyright infringement of “hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books.”
The crux of the authors’ complaint lies in Anthropic’s AI ChatBot, Claude, which they claim was trained using pirated versions of their works. The lawsuit asserts that Anthropic’s business model revolves around the unauthorized use of copyrighted material, rather than compensating authors for their creations. The plaintiffs argue that Anthropic has gone to great lengths to conceal the extent of its copyright infringement activities.
According to reports referenced in the complaint, Anthropic has received significant funding from tech giants such as Amazon and Google, with a valuation exceeding $18 billion as of December 2023. The company has garnered favor among corporate clients like Slack, Zoominfo, Asama, Bridgewater, LexisNexis, and Jane Street Capital, further fueling its growth and impact in the industry.
The allegations of copyright infringement stem from Anthropic’s admission that it utilized a dataset called “Books3” within “The Pile,” an open-source dataset used for training large language models. The plaintiffs contend that Books3 contains pirated books sourced from Bibliotik, a collection known for hosting unauthorized copies of copyrighted works. This revelation forms the basis of the authors’ claim against Anthropic.
In a separate legal action, music publishing companies Universal Music, ABKCO, and Concord have also sued Anthropic for infringing on their copyrighted song lyrics. The lawsuit alleges that Claude, the AI ChatBot, can generate song lyrics based on popular songs owned by the publishers, without obtaining proper licenses for the copyrighted material. The publishers argue that Anthropic’s activities violate their intellectual property rights and undermine the integrity of their creative works.
In response to the music publishers’ lawsuit, Anthropic defended its technology, stating that any instances of copyrighted material in its outputs are unintentional and not a deliberate feature of the product. The company maintains that it has measures in place to prevent copyright infringement and views the publishers’ claims as a misunderstanding of the technology and legal framework.
The authors bringing the lawsuit against Anthropic criticize the company for portraying itself as a champion of “AI safety” and “responsibility” while allegedly engaging in actions that contradict these principles. They argue that Anthropic’s conduct undermines the integrity of the creative process and fails to uphold ethical standards in the use of AI technology.
The lawsuit seeks statutory or compensatory damages, an injunction against further infringement, and reimbursement for attorney’s fees, among other forms of relief. Attorneys from Susman Godfrey and Lieff Cabraser are representing the plaintiffs in this legal battle against Anthropic.
In conclusion, the authors’ lawsuit against Anthropic sheds light on the complex intersection of AI technology and intellectual property rights. As the use of AI in creative industries continues to evolve, questions surrounding copyright infringement and ethical use of AI tools are likely to remain contentious issues for authors, publishers, and technology companies alike.
