Major music publishers including Universal Music, ABKCO, and Concord have submitted a strong rebuttal against Anthropic in their ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit, challenging the AI company's defense of its Claude chatbot's use of protected song lyrics.

Key points from the publishers' latest filing:

1. Inadequate Safeguards

• Anthropic's implemented "guardrails" are inconsistent and potentially circumventable
• Current protections fail to completely prevent copyright infringement
• Publishers continue to find verbatim copies and unauthorized derivatives of protected lyrics

2. Responsibility for Infringement

• Publishers reject Anthropic's claim that they're responsible for infringement by submitting test queries
• These queries represent typical user behavior and are necessary to detect violations

3. Fair Use Challenge

• Publishers contest Anthropic's position that training AI models on copyrighted materials constitutes fair use
• They argue the use is commercial rather than transformative
• The practice threatens existing licensing markets and creative control

4. Market Impact

• Publishers claim Anthropic's free use of lyrics undermines paid licensing agreements
• AI-generated derivatives and mashups pose additional concerns
• The system can produce error-filled or offensive content that publishers "would not license at any cost"

Requested Relief: The publishers seek a preliminary injunction requiring Anthropic to:

• Make current protective measures permanent during litigation
• Cease using protected lyrics in future AI model training

This case continues as part of broader tensions between content creators and AI companies, with significant implications for both industries' futures.

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