Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the chatbot Claude, has expanded its legal team as it faces two copyright lawsuits from a group of authors and music publishers.
Anthropic is preparing for a December trial in its case brought by a group of book authors, led by Paul Bartz, who sued the AI company last year over allegedly misusing their books to train its Claude AI chatbot.
On Thursday (July 17), U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that the three authors suing Anthropic can bring a class action on behalf of all U.S. writers whose works are allegedly being used by the AI company for its training. The plaintiffs have until September 1 to submit a list.
The latest action comes less than a month after Judge Alsup ruled that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books to train AI, without explicit permission to do so, does indeed count as “fair use.”
However, the judge ruled that Anthropic’s downloading and storage of copyrighted books from shadow libraries does not qualify as fair use.
“Anthropic had no entitlement to use pirated copies for its central library. Creating a permanent, general-purpose library was not itself a fair use excusing Anthropic’s piracy,” the judge wrote in the June 23 ruling, which can be read in full here.
Meanwhile, Anthropic is also facing a separate lawsuit brought by music publishers, including Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord, and ABKCO, in 2023. The lawsuit accuses the AI firm of using copyrighted lyrics to train the Claude chatbot and alleges that Claude regurgitates copyrighted lyrics when prompted by users.
Following last week’s ruling that certified a class of potentially several million works, Anthropic has beefed up its legal defense across the two cases.
As reported by AI industry blog chatgptiseatingtheworld.com, Anthropic added two new trial teams from Morrison Foerster and WilmerHale on Thursday (July 18), including experienced trial lawyers Daralyn Durie and Louis Tompros.
“What we just witnessed on Friday is the legal equivalent of a code red,” according to the blog post. “Anthropic understands now, if it didn’t before, that the two copyright lawsuits it faces are not simply about copyright, but also about its very existence.”
In the case brought against Anthropic by the music publishers, the blog noted that “Anthropic wasted no time in adding a new law firm led by the prominent trial attorney Louis Tompros to its defense team consisting of lawyers from Latham”.
MBW has spotted documents filed with the court that correlate with this report.
An application was submitted on behalf of Louis Tompros on July 18 requesting admission to represent Anthopic in the case filed by the music publishers. It was granted on the same day.
“I expect Louis Tompros will be the lead trial attorney for Anthropic in this case,” the blog post noted.
If the court finds Anthropic liable for willful infringement, meaning it knowingly broke the law, the company could be hit with statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work.
The blog’s writer believes the judge’s recent decision sets the stage for larger damages in Anthropic’s two legal cases.
“I analyzed various statutory damages scenarios a jury might award against Anthropic. They all are bad, and some, catastrophic. If the jury finds willful infringement (knowing the activity was illegal), many scenarios would surpass the total valuation of the company ($100 billion) — and put the company in an existential bind,” the writer for chatgptiseatingtheworld.com said.
“Even if Anthropic could prevail on the eventual appeal in the 9th Circuit, it might not survive until then because typically an appellant must post bond in the amount of the damages award,” they wrote.
“It’s a code red at Anthropic. The company is fighting for its very existence now,” the blog writer said.
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