THE BIG STORY: If you thought the AI music legal wars were winding down, think again.
Just three months after Universal Music Group reached the first major settlement between a music company and an AI firm, UMG and other publishers filed a new lawsuit against Anthropic — this time potentially seeking more than $3 billion in damages.
The case is the second filed by UMG and others against Anthropic, whose Claude model has boomed in popularity in recent weeks. But where the earlier case focused on how the company trains its models, the new one centers on a newly emerging legal weakness for AI firms: The alleged use of “pirate libraries” as part of that training.
Why is that a big deal? To find out, go read the entire story, which features a full breakdown of the case and access to the actual legal documents UMG filed in court.
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Other top stories this week…
-Cardi B won legal sanctions against a lawyer who sued her, with a judge ruling that the attorney intentionally violated court orders by asking the superstar if she had any gang ties.
-At a tense Senate hearing on the live music industry, Live Nation legal chief Dan Wall strongly denied the FTC’s accusation that the company has enabled ticket scalpers. Kid Rock was there too, obviously.
-Mötley Crüe won a key ruling in its breakup with Mick Mars, with a judge ruling that the band was legally allowed to fire him — and that Mars actually owes the band money rather than vice-versa.
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-A sex worker allegedly victimized by Sean “Diddy” Combs is suing Netflix and 50 Cent over Sean Combs: The Reckoning, claiming the docuseries “distorted” his story with selective editing.
-Warner Music Group general counsel Paul Robinson was honored by the Recording Academy and offered advice for young music lawyers: “Our only agenda should be our client’s agenda.”
-A Rihanna track from last year’s Smurfs movie is at the center of a new lawsuit filed by the Grammy-nominated songwriter RØMANS, who claims he was never paid by Paramount Pictures.
-In other movie-music news, a vocalist on Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s chart-topping Furious 7 hit “See You Again” sued Warner Music Group over claims he’s been “cheated” out of royalties.
-Pandora reached a settlement to end long-running litigation over what it pays comedians, though the streamer stressed that it had not agreed to the novel publishing-like royalties sought by the lawsuits.
-BMG’s BBR Music Group was hit with a lawsuit for dropping Jimmie Allen in the wake of sexual assault allegations against the singer – a move his lawyers called throwing him “under the proverbial bus.”
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-The creator of the Nickelodeon series Big Time Rush reached a settlement with Sony Music Entertainment over financial splits from the recent reunion of the TV show’s eponymous boy band.
-50 Cent’s ex-girlfriend is firing back at his lawsuit claiming he owns her life rights, claiming she only signed that deal because she was “fearing” for her life.
-A judge dismissed a lawsuit over Chris Brown’s Breezy Bowl XX tour after two different lawyers quit on Breezy Swim, the company that filed the trademark infringement case.
