Round Hill Music sues Anthropic and Suno over AI copyright claims

MUMBAI: The AI music debate has hit another high note. Music publisher Round Hill Music has filed separate lawsuits against Anthropic and Suno in a California federal court, alleging that both companies used copyrighted music without permission to develop their artificial intelligence systems, Reuters reported.

Round Hill alleges that lyrics from at least 500 songs in its catalogue were used in AI training. The works include songs associated with artists such as James Brown, The Kinks and the Goo Goo Dolls.

The publisher is seeking damages in both cases and has warned that the litigation could eventually cover a much larger body of work. Round Hill said the lawsuits could expand to include 10,000 or more compositions, potentially pushing the value of its claims to $1 billion or more, depending on the number of works ultimately covered and damages awarded.

In its case against Anthropic, Round Hill alleges that lyrics from compositions it controls were used to train Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, allowing the system to respond to user prompts using material derived from the copyrighted works.

The publisher has made a similar claim against Suno, alleging that its songs were incorporated into the training of the company’s AI-powered music-generation technology.

Anthropic and Suno had not immediately commented on the lawsuits.

Round Hill CEO Josh Gruss said the publisher intends to pursue both cases in court and seek compensation for the songwriters and artists whose work it says was used. The lawsuits add another verse to the increasingly crowded legal battle between creative rights holders and AI companies over what material can be used to train generative systems.

Anthropic is already facing separate litigation from major music rights holders, including Universal Music Group and BMG Rights Management, over allegations concerning the use of song lyrics in AI development. Suno, meanwhile, is facing copyright claims from Universal Music Group and Sony Music relating to the training of its music-generation technology.

The dispute extends well beyond the music industry. Authors, publishers and media organisations have also taken legal action against technology companies including OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta, challenging how copyrighted material is obtained and used to develop AI systems.

Anthropic previously reached a $1.5 billion settlement with a group of authors in a separate copyright dispute. The Round Hill cases therefore add another significant test for how courts may determine the boundaries between AI development and the rights of creators.

For music publishers, the question is increasingly less about whether AI can create a hit and more about what it was trained on before it did.