Elvis Presley’s Rights Holders Sue Anthropic for $48.6 Million

By Marcus Bennett

Elvis Presley’s rights holders sued Anthropic on Friday for $48.6 million, alleging that its Claude model was trained on 274 songs without permission.

The 28-page complaint, filed in the federal court for the Northern District of California, names Authentic Brands Group, Raleigh Music Publishing and other rights holders as plaintiffs. It seeks $48.6 million in damages for the use of the songs and an order for Anthropic to stop infringing their copyrights.

According to the plaintiffs, Anthropic put a potential multitrillion-dollar stock opening ahead of the rights of those who control Presley’s catalog. Richard Busch, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, linked Claude’s training to Anthropic’s pursuit of a potentially $2 trillion initial public offering.

The complaint names “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” “Run On” and “Farther Along” among the 274 works at issue. It alleges that Anthropic improperly used those songs to train Claude.

What does the lawsuit change for Presley’s rights holders?

The filing puts a $48.6 million claim before the federal court. It also asks the court to order Anthropic to cease infringing the rights holders’ copyright. Neither Richard Busch nor Anthropic responded to immediate requests for comment.

For music owners, the practical effect is specific: the plaintiffs have set a $48.6 million demand and asked a court to halt the conduct. The filing does not establish liability.

Busch challenges Anthropic’s position on AI and copyright

Busch challenged Anthropic’s public presentation of itself as a company eager to better humanity through AI. He set that language against the copyright cases Anthropic was already fighting.

“While in other cases for copyright infringement, Defendant has waxed poetic about the necessity of progress and AI’s value to society, there is simply no reason—other than rote expediency—to have that progress come at the cost of copyright holders,” Busch writes.

He also said Anthropic’s posture clashed with its pursuit of a potentially $2 trillion initial public offering. Busch tied the alleged use of Presley’s catalog to an effort to boost the company’s valuation.

“The Works were created over periods of dozens of years, and Anthropic, by its infringing conduct, is destroying the value of these Works in a matter of a few years with only profit as its motive,” he wrote.

The dispute joins a wider fight over training data

Busch, a music rights lawyer, previously sued Anthropic on behalf of Round Hill Music, an independent publisher. The August case sought $1 billion and alleged that Anthropic illegally scraped hundreds of songs without permission.

Anthropic has faced several copyright infringement lawsuits from artists and writers over how it trained its AI models. Last year, it settled with a group of authors for $1.5 billion after they accused it of misusing their books for model training.

The Presley lawsuit arrives as AI companies become more entangled in litigation over model training. Lawsuits have also targeted Suno, Udio and other companies.

The court’s treatment of the $48.6 million demand will test whether the plaintiffs can turn their account of 274 songs into damages and an order halting the alleged infringement.