Elvis Presley songs at centre of nearly $50 million copyright lawsuit against Anthropic
People who own the rights to songs recorded by Elvis Presley say Anthropic used the lyrics of 274 songs to train its Claude AI models without permission. They are asking for up to $48.6 million in damages.
The people and companies that own the rights to hundreds of songs recorded by Elvis Presley have sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic. They say the company used copyrighted music without permission to train its Claude AI models. They are asking for up to $48.6 million in damages.
The lawsuit was filed on October 23, 2026, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. It concerns 274 songs linked to the late singer. The people bringing the case say Anthropic copied these works without getting permission or paying the copyright owners.
The songs named in the case include some of Presley's best-known hits, such as Can't Help Falling in Love, All Shook Up, Don't Be Cruel, A Little Less Conversation and Return to Sender.
Anthropic has rejected the allegations. A company spokesperson told NBC News that Anthropic disagreed with the claims and planned to fight the case fully.
What does the lawsuit allege?
The lawsuit was filed by ABG EPE IP LLC, a group linked to Authentic Brands Group. The other plaintiffs include music publishers Raleigh Music Publishing and Abilene Music, along with trusts linked to songwriter Luigi Creatore and the Aberbach family.
According to the lawsuit, Anthropic collected copyrighted song lyrics from sources such as online archives and datasets. It then kept copies in an internal collection so they could be used to train future versions of Claude. The plaintiffs argue that copying the lyrics broke copyright law, even if the chatbot did not later produce those lyrics in its answers.
The complaint also says Claude can create versions of copyrighted songs when users ask it to. The plaintiffs claim that some of these versions still contain recognisable parts of the original songs, including their structure, memorable hooks and verses, even when some words are changed.
The rights holders also say that information identifying the copyright owners was removed from the works. They are asking for money for both the alleged copyright violations and the alleged removal of copyright information. They also want a court order to stop further violations.
The claims have not yet been proven in court.
How much compensation are the plaintiffs seeking?
The rights holders are asking for up to $150,000 for each of the 274 works. This would total $41.1 million in damages set by copyright law. They are also seeking $685,000 over the alleged bypassing of technological protection measures and $6.85 million over the alleged removal of copyright information. Together, these claims add up to about $48.6 million.
The case is part of a growing number of legal disputes about how AI companies collect and use copyrighted material to build their models. Music publishers say that using protected song lyrics without permission threatens songwriters' control over their work and their ability to earn money from royalties.
Anthropic has faced other lawsuits from music publishers over claims that it used copyrighted lyrics to train Claude. The case involving Elvis adds another well-known collection of songs to the wider debate over whether AI developers can use protected creative works without permission.
The legal question is not only whether a chatbot can produce a song when someone asks for it. It is also whether copying copyrighted material to train an AI model requires permission and, if it does, what rules should apply. The court's decision could affect music publishers, songwriters and AI developers as judges continue to examine how copyright law applies to AI.
First Published: Oct 27, 2026, 12:21:27 IST