3 Count: Anthropic Principle

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1: Anthropic Wins Early Round in Music Publishers’ AI Copyright Case

First off, today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that Anthropic has won an early round in one of its lawsuits as a judge has denied a preliminary injunction that would have barred the company from using lyrics owned by Universal Music Group (UMG).

UMG filed the lawsuit in 2023 alleging that Anthropic infringed the rights of some 500 songs they hold the rights to. According to UMG, Antrhopic used the lyrics to train their AI systems, most prominently Claude. Anthropic, however, has argued that this amounts to fair use and is not an infringement.

However, the judge did not address the fair use questions when denying the injunction. Instead, the judge ruled that the injunction was overly broad and that they had failed to show “irreparable harm.”. As such, the judge rejected the injunction, but the case is moving forward.

2: Kanye West Slapped With Copyright Lawsuit Because of His Support For Nazis

Next up today, TMZ reports that Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has been sued by German musician Alice Merton for using one of her songs as a sample in a recent Ye release.

Merton claims that she wrote and recorded the song Blindside in 2022. The next year, Ye released the song Gun to My Head, which featured a sample from Blindside. After the release, Ye requested permission to use the song through BMG Rights Management but rejected the offer.

According to Merton, recent anti-Semitic statements by Ye caused her not to want any association with the musician. She also says she’s received threats for her refusal. Neither Ye nor his record label has responded to the lawsuit.

3: ASCAP Warns US Creative Economy ‘Will Be Undermined’ if Copyright Laws Loosened for AI Developers

Finally today, Daniel Tencer at Music Business Worldwide reports that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has filed a comment on the government’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan.

ASCAP is a performing rights organization representing over a million songwriters and music publishers. In their comment, they acknowledged the potential for AI technology but said that it risked limiting human creativity, particularly if copyright laws are adjusted to enable AI to use human-created works.

To that end, ASCAP proposed a human-first policy focused on obtaining consent from creators and transparency in AI training. They also called for compensation for creators, attribution and a global framework so that all systems would operate under the same rules.

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