Description
Concord Music v. Anthropic just had oral arguments on fair use for training Claude on copyrighted music, and the publishers' arguments did not land well.
This is the first major hearing on the matter since the summary judgment wins in Bartz v. Anthropic and Kadrey v. Meta over a year ago.
Hat tip to Adam Eisgrau, who was in the courtroom live-tweeting the whole thing.
Concord tried arguing that Anthropic hadn't properly raised fair use on derivative works, leaned on Warhol and an unpublished Copyright Office report with no legal weight, and claimed Claude exists to spit out lyrics.
Judge Eumi K. Lee pushed back hard—pointing out that would "entrench a publisher's monopoly." Their lawyer's reply? "Monopoly is not a bad word in the context of copyright."
Remember that! That's their entire attitude: copyright should be about granting them MONOPOLIES.
They also claimed that every lyricist is harmed by "market dilution." That's circular (as Nimmer on Copyright has pointed out forever) and isn't in any way the substitution the law actually cares about.
Anthropic's side walked through proper Warhol application, noted both sides' experts agree Claude is not a giant lyrics-copying machine, and highlighted the UMG earnings call we've previously covered saying AI music isn't actually competing with or harming them.
Sounds like we might get another solid fair use decision—or at least a Bartz-style settlement. Full breakdown of the four-hour hearing and what it means.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
🔊Pᴏᴅᴄᴀꜱᴛ: https://podcast.bogosity.tv/
💬Dɪꜱᴄᴏʀᴅ: https://discord.bogosity.tv/
▶️YᴏᴜTᴜʙᴇ: https://www.youtube.com/shanedk
▶️Oᴅʏsᴇᴇ: https://odysee.com/%24/invite/@shanedk:4
▶️Rᴜᴍʙʟᴇ https://rumble.com/c/shanedk
💬Dɪꜱᴄᴏʀᴅ: http://bit.ly/LK-Discord
💰Dᴏɴᴀᴛᴇ ᴏʀ ꜱᴜʙꜱᴄʀɪʙᴇ: https://donate.bogosity.tv
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - An AI Producing Novel Text Is NOT a Lyrics-Generating Machine
2:24 - The Circular "Licensing" Argument
3:39 - Harm Is About Substitution, Not Competition
4:24 - Infringement Is the Fault of the User, Not Anthropic
5:47 - That Uncomfortable UMG Earnings Call
6:20 - Five Key Takeaways
7:52 - Plaintiffs Face High Hurdles Overcoming Fair Use