Anthropic Faces $41 Million Copyright Lawsuit Over Elvis Presley Songs

The companies controlling rights to Elvis Presley's music filed a federal lawsuit Friday, October 23, 2026, accusing Claude AI developer Anthropic of using 274 copyrighted compositions to train its artificial intelligence models without permission. The rights holders are seeking up to $41.1 million in statutory damages, alleging that the company also enabled its technology to generate unauthorized versions of the songs.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the complaint alleges that Anthropic copied copyrighted lyrics without permission or compensation and developed AI systems capable of producing unauthorized versions of the compositions. The songs include "Can't Help Falling in Love," "Don't Be Cruel," "A Little Less Conversation," "All Shook Up" and "Return to Sender."

The plaintiffs include ABG EPE IP LLC, a unit of Authentic Brands Group, which controls substantial rights associated with Presley, along with music publishers and other entities holding interests in his compositions. Their claims concern copyrights in the underlying songs, including lyrics, rather than the master recordings of Presley's performances.

According to the complaint, Anthropic copied protected lyrics from online sources and assembled them into a collection used to develop its Claude models. The rights holders allege that the company retained unauthorized copies in its training datasets and internal systems while failing to secure licenses to reproduce the material.

The filing also accuses Anthropic of producing unlicensed derivative works through Claude. Plaintiffs point to instances in which the AI system allegedly generated rewritten versions of copyrighted songs that retained recognizable structures, hooks and lyrical arrangements despite changes to the original wording.

Anthropic's safeguards against reproducing copyrighted material also came under scrutiny. The complaint alleges that users could bypass restrictions by requesting adaptations of existing songs, allowing Claude to generate material that closely resembled protected compositions.

The rights holders are seeking the maximum statutory damages available for willful copyright infringement, which can reach $150,000 per work. Applied to the 274 compositions identified in the filing, that amounts to $41.1 million. Any award would depend on the plaintiffs establishing infringement and meeting the legal requirements for enhanced damages.

Additional allegations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act accuse Anthropic of circumventing technological measures intended to protect copyrighted material and removing or altering copyright-management information, including identifying details associated with the works. Those claims carry separate potential penalties.

Attorney Richard Busch, representing the Presley rights holders, said his clients are "deeply protective of these iconic songs." The complaint accuses Anthropic of building its business through unauthorized copying on an extensive scale.

The legal action adds to several copyright disputes involving Anthropic's use of music in AI development. Publishers affiliated with Universal Music, Sony and Warner have pursued claims involving copyrighted lyrics and other protected material, while additional rights holders have challenged the company's collection of works for training.

A central issue in those proceedings is whether using copyrighted material to train generative AI models qualifies as fair use, a doctrine that permits certain unlicensed uses of protected works depending on factors such as their purpose, nature, amount copied and effect on the market for the originals. AI developers have invoked that defense in copyright litigation, while publishers maintain that copying entire works to develop commercial systems requires authorization.

The Presley plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting further unauthorized use of the compositions, along with an accounting of relevant training materials and the impoundment or destruction of allegedly infringing copies held in Anthropic's datasets and internal systems.

The lawsuit also requests a jury trial and monetary relief under both federal copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Anthropic will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations as the case proceeds in federal court.