Elvis Presley plaintiffs sue Anthropic over music used to train AI

The complaint names ABG EPE IP LLC, several trusts and individuals, Abilene Music LLC, and Raleigh Music Publishing LLC as plaintiffs.[2] They say they own or control exclusive U.S. copyright rights in musical compositions.[2] The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic trained its models on copyrighted material, including their works, without a license or payment.[2] The complaint is titled as an action for direct copyright infringement, circumvention of protection measures, and removal or alteration of copyright-management information.[2] Those descriptions state the plaintiffs’ claims, not a court’s conclusions.

The complaint identifies 274 musical compositions as the works at issue.[2] Its examples include “All Shook Up,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “If I Can Dream,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “A Little Less Conversation,” “Return To Sender” and “(You’re The) Devil In Disguise.”[2] The plaintiffs say Claude recreated specific songs when prompted to adapt them for a modern audience.[2] The complaint quotes Claude as saying its outputs reused original song structures and hooks and included full verses, choruses and bridges.[2] The plaintiffs also allege that Anthropic made unlicensed copies and removed copyright-management information.[2]

The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic trained its models to disregard copyright-management information in training and output to conceal infringement.[2] They further allege that Claude continued to infringe after Anthropic supposedly added guardrails following an earlier lawsuit.[2] Rolling Stone reported that Authentic Brands Group filed the lawsuit on a Friday, and its report is dated October 24, 2026.[1] Rolling Stone described the case as among the first major instances of an artist’s estate taking legal action against an AI company.[1] The evidence provided does not include a response from Anthropic.