Universal Music Group and other music publishers have secured a significant development in their copyright battle with artificial intelligence company Anthropic, as the court approves protective measures or \u201cguardrails\u201d for AI-generated song lyrics.<\/p>\n
UMG<\/b>,<\/strong> along with other publishers including\u00a0Concord Music Group\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0ABKCO,<\/strong>\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0Anthropic<\/strong>\u00a0in 2023, alleging copyright infringement. <\/span><\/p>\n The group claimed that Anthropic trained its AI system\u00a0Claude<\/strong>\u00a0on lyrics from at least\u00a0500<\/strong> songs by major artists,<\/span>\u00a0including Katy Perry, <\/b>the Rolling Stones, <\/b>and Beyonc\u00e9<\/b>, and sought $150,000<\/b> in damages per infringement.<\/p>\n The publishers expressed satisfaction with the court’s decision to implement these “guardrails,” viewing it as validation of their claims against Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude’s unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted lyrics.<\/p>\n The measures require Anthropic to maintain various protective controls in its current AI models and implement similar safeguards in future large language models and product offerings.<\/p>\n “Anthropic will be required to maintain various guardrails in its Claude AI models going forward and to implement those guardrails in future large language models and product offerings as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Universal Music Group<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe are pleased the Court approved these important \u2018guardrails\u2019 \u2013 measures which Anthropic must take to protect the Publisher-Plaintiffs\u2019 copyrighted content, by preventing infringing outputs of copyrighted song lyrics – effectively acknowledging the merits of our claims against Claude\u2019s infringing outputs,\u201d UMG<\/strong> said on behalf of the other publishers in a statement issued to MBW.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the terms of the stipulation, Anthropic will be required to maintain various guardrails in its Claude AI models going forward and to implement those guardrails in future large language models and product offerings as well.\u201d<\/p>\n While welcoming Anthropic’s agreement to the stipulation as “a positive step forward,” the publishers stressed that their legal battle continues<\/strong>. A key aspect of their lawsuit remains unresolved \u2013 specifically, their motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to prevent Anthropic from using publishers’ lyrics for future AI model training.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Anthropic\u2019s stipulation is a positive step forward, this lawsuit remains ongoing, and the publishers\u2019 motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to prevent Anthropic from exploiting the publishers\u2019 lyrics for future training of AI models is still pending before the court,\u201d UMG said.<\/p>\n The court-approved agreement establishes a mechanism for publishers to notify Anthropic if they detect instances where the protective measures fail to prevent unauthorized reproduction of their copyrighted lyrics. Under these terms, Anthropic must respond promptly and investigate such allegations, working with the publishers \u201cin good faith\u201d to address any identified issues.<\/p>\n \u201cAnthropic will ultimately provide a detailed written response identifying when and how Anthropic will address the issue identified in Publishers\u2019 notice, or Anthropic will clearly state its intent not to address the issue,\u201d according to a stipulation and proposed order handed down by Judge Eumi K. Lee<\/b> of the US District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n \u201cAnthropic will ultimately provide a detailed written response identifying when and how Anthropic will address the issue identified in Publishers\u2019 notice, or Anthropic will clearly state its intent not to address the issue.”<\/p>\n Judge Eumi K. Lee, US District Court for the Northern District of California<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Anthropic filed<\/a> a motion with the court in August to dismiss<\/a> the charges brought against it by the music publishers. It also asked the court to remove claims of \u201ccontributory\u201d copyright infringement, \u201cvicarious\u201d copyright infringement, and \u201cremoval or alteration of copyright management information,\u201d a violation of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).<\/p>\n Subsequently in September, Universal, Concord, and ABKCO urged<\/a> the court to reject the request for dismissal.<\/p>\n\n
\n