A federal judge in San Jose questioned the pleading behind music publishers' lawsuit over lyrics and Claude at a hearing on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, as Courthouse News, Law360 and the Snape Report date it. Judge Eumi Lee dismissed the direct copyright infringement claim against Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, with leave to amend, according to Courthouse News. She did not decide Anthropic's own motion at the hearing. The parties must file a joint status report by November 11, according to the Snape Report, which cites the court's minute entry. MLex gives the same deadline, "next Wednesday." We have not seen the minute entry ourselves.
This is a pleading-stage event. No court has found that Anthropic or Amodei infringed any copyright. In its motion, Anthropic says it "contests the merit" of the claims it has not yet moved to dismiss.
The case
The case is Concord Music Group, Inc. v. Anthropic PBC, No. 5:26-cv-00880-EKL-SVK in the Northern District of California. Anthropic's filings call it "Concord II". An earlier case by the same publishers, "Concord I", was filed October 18, 2023 and covers 499 works.
Concord, Universal Music Group and ABKCO filed Concord II on January 28, 2026 against Anthropic, Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann, according to IPWatchdog. IPWatchdog reports that the complaint alleges mass downloading by BitTorrent from pirate book libraries. According to IPWatchdog, the complaint lists 714 works in one exhibit and 20,517 works in another. It seeks statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement and up to $25,000 per violation for copyright management information claims.
Reuters quoted the publishers as saying the suit covers "more than 20,000 songs, with potential statutory damages of more than $3 billion." Courthouse News reports the publishers say they learned of the torrenting from Bartz v. Anthropic, the authors' class action that Anthropic settled for $1.5 billion. We covered the approval of that settlement in a separate post.
What Anthropic asked the court to cut
Anthropic filed its motion for partial dismissal on August 3, 2026. It targets two things in the second amended complaint, filed May 21, 2026:
- The part of Count II that rests on what Claude outputs.
- Count V, the claim about copyright management information, or CMI, in full.
The motion says Anthropic "contests the merit" of the torrenting claim (Count I) and the training part of Count II, but does not move to dismiss them at this time.
On outputs, Anthropic argues that the publishers "never identify even a single Claude output" of the roughly 21,000 works in suit. It says Concord I included side-by-side examples of outputs for its 499 works, and Concord II has none. It also argues the complaint does not say which works were copied in training and which in outputs. The motion cites Justice v. Uncharted Labs, a May 21, 2026 Southern District of New York decision, which Anthropic cites for dismissing a claim that did not identify a specific AI output.
On CMI, Anthropic argues the DMCA bars removing CMI from a whole copyrighted work. It says the publishers' works are musical compositions, and that they allege only lyrics were copied. It asks for dismissal with prejudice.
What happened at the hearing
Courthouse News reports that Judge Lee first tentatively ruled to deny Anthropic's motion, then heard argument and "wasn't fully convinced" the publishers had pleaded a claim. She asked for more briefing.
Anthropic's lawyer Sonal Mehta told the court, "The heart of the issue is the inadequacy of the allegations." She said the publishers gave no detail on how or why 20,517 works were chosen. Publishers' lawyer Nicholas Hailey said they did not need to prove a fact to make a claim. Courthouse News quotes Judge Lee on the number: "It's oddly specific, yet oddly not because of the basis."
Courthouse News describes the judge's concern as being about copying "through torrenting". Anthropic's motion papers, as above, do not challenge the torrenting claim. We have not seen the minute entry, so we cannot say how the court framed it. MLex reports that Judge Lee "deferred ruling" on the claims about Claude's lyrics and on the CMI allegations.
The claim against Amodei
Amodei's separate reply brief argued that the complaint alleges no copying by him personally. It says the complaint names Mann and two unnamed "Anthropic employees" as the people who torrented. His motion challenged only the direct infringement claim, not the contributory claim.
Courthouse News quotes Judge Lee as saying, "Every CEO for any small startup would be liable under the analysis here." It also reports that Hailey noted Amodei may still face secondary infringement, which Anthropic has not challenged.
Outlets differ in how they sum up the day. Law360's headline reads "Anthropic And CEO Beat Lyric Infringement Claims, For Now". Courthouse News, MLex and the Snape Report describe a narrower result: one claim against Amodei dismissed with leave to amend, and Anthropic's motion still open.
Why it matters
The dispute is about how much detail a publisher must plead before discovery. The publishers say the evidence of outputs sits with Anthropic. Anthropic says the publishers produced examples before discovery in Concord I and could do so again. Per Courthouse News, Mehta also pointed to "enhanced guardrails" Anthropic built to stop Claude from reproducing lyrics.
The result will not decide whether Claude's outputs infringe. It decides which claims go forward to discovery in this case. Courthouse News notes that Judge Lee has not yet ruled on summary judgment in the earlier case.
A separate suit by Elvis Presley's rights holders is covered in our post on the 274-song lawsuit. Round Hill Music has also filed suits against Anthropic and Suno over song catalogs, covered in our post on the Round Hill filings.
What to watch
- November 11, 2026: the joint status report on whether Anthropic's motion is resolved by more briefing or by an amended complaint, per the Snape Report and MLex.
- Whether the publishers amend the direct infringement claim against Amodei.
Sources
- Courthouse News: Music publishers suffer setback in copyright case against Anthropic
- Anthropic's motion for partial dismissal, Dkt. 103 (CourtListener)
- Amodei's reply in support of partial motion to dismiss, Dkt. 123 (CourtListener)
- Snape Report: Judge dismisses lyric claims against Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, with leave to amend
- MLex: Anthropic CEO wins copyright reprieve as US judge doubts music publishers' claims
- Law360: Anthropic And CEO Beat Lyric Infringement Claims, For Now
- IPWatchdog: Music Publishers File New Piracy Suit Against Anthropic
- Reuters: Anthropic faces new music publisher lawsuit over alleged piracy
