Independent music publisher Round Hill Music filed separate copyright infringement lawsuits against AI companies Suno and Anthropic on Monday, August 17, alleging both firms used copyrighted songs to train their AI models without authorization, license, or compensation.
The complaints were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Round Hill alleges that Anthropic used lyrics from songs it controls to help train its Claude chatbot, while Suno is accused of using copyrighted sound recordings to train its AI music-generation platform. The Suno complaint also names data-scraping firm Bright Data as a co-defendant, alleging it supplied tools that enabled the collection of copyrighted material from licensed platforms.
Round Hill’s complaints allege violations of the U.S. Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with the latter claim accusing the companies of using data-scraping technology to bypass copyright protections.
Each complaint initially lists 500 musical compositions as what Round Hill describes as a prioritized, representative sample, including the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” and James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good).” Round Hill said it plans to amend both complaints to cover potentially 10,000 or more works. According to the filings, the plaintiffs collectively own or control 14,364 musical compositions and 16,873 sound recordings.
Each lawsuit seeks statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work found to be willfully infringed. Round Hill said total damages across the two cases could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars and potentially approach or exceed $1 billion.
Round Hill founder and CEO Josh Gruss said in a statement that the company is not opposed to artificial intelligence, but objects to AI businesses being built on other people’s creative work without payment to the creators. Gruss said licensing exists to protect the legal owners of underlying material, not to obstruct innovation.
Richard Busch of Adams and Reese LLP, the attorney representing Round Hill, said in the filings that copyrighted works have been used to build multibillion-dollar companies — including, in Anthropic’s case, a company now valued above $1 trillion — while the songwriters and publishers behind that material have received nothing.
Gruss said Round Hill intends to take both cases to trial rather than pursue a settlement, and said the company would not accept a resolution that leaves songwriters and artists without their share of compensation.
Representatives for Suno and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuits, according to multiple outlets that reported on the filings.
Round Hill, founded in 2010 and based in Nashville, says it manages a portfolio valued at $1.1 billion covering more than 200,000 copyrights. The company has not announced a licensing agreement with any AI company for its catalog.
Suno has faced separate copyright litigation from the three major music companies — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group — since June 2024. Warner Music Group settled its case in November 2025, agreeing to license its catalog to Suno; Universal and Sony are continuing to litigate their claims. Suno separately announced a licensing agreement with music company BMG in the week before Round Hill’s lawsuit was filed.
Anthropic has faced a number of copyright-related lawsuits from music publishers and labels, including Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, ABKCO, and BMG, over allegations that song lyrics were used without authorization to train Claude. Anthropic’s most recent primary funding round in May valued the company at $965 billion, with subsequent estimates placing its valuation above $1.2 trillion.
