AI Copyright Litigation: Training Data // AIDRAN

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This arc tracks the rapid escalation of AI copyright litigation from March to April 2026, anchored by Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic. That settlement, the largest copyright payout in US history, established a decisive bright line: training on pirated material is not fair use. Judge Alsup's split ruling — fair use for licensed data, liability for pirated sources — became the operational standard every AI lab now negotiates against. The settlement's administrative chaos also gave plaintiffs' attorneys evidence that cash alone is insufficient remedy, fueling new filings. Within days, BMG filed suit against Anthropic over copyrighted lyrics, consolidating the music industry's legal front. Taylor Swift's parallel trademark strategy bypassed the training-data debate entirely, targeting AI outputs that trade on her identity. These cases forced courts to simultaneously adjudicate input liability, output ownership, and platform responsibility without a shared doctrinal framework. A March 2026 research paper, "Alignment Whack-a-Mole," delivered a second shock: finetuning unlocked 85–90% verbatim recall of copyrighted books in major LLMs. This peer-reviewed finding directly refuted the labs' core litigation defense that models do not store copies. Labs that submitted declarations about non-memorization now face a technical counterexhibit, shifting the evidentiary burden in active cases. The extraction technique is commercially reproducible via standard API finetuning, making it a litigation tool, not just a research finding. The arc's unresolved question is whether any coherent legal framework can emerge from this three-front war — input liability, output ownership, and platform responsibility — before the next generation of training runs begins. With each front producing its own precedent, AI companies face simultaneous liability claims that will not resolve before their next model release.

Story links

→BMG, Swift, and the Billionaire: AI Copyright's Three-Front War →Anthropic Settled. That's the Only Number That Matters in AI Copyright Right Now.→The $1.5 Billion Line That Redrew AI Copyright →The Paper That Turned a Legal Defense Into a Liability

LeadAI & LawMediumApr 13 · 20:34 UTC

BMG, Swift, and the Billionaire: AI Copyright's Three-Front War

BMG's lawsuit against Anthropic joins a widening legal front where music, identity, and output rights are each forcing courts to price AI's costs.

BMG's lawsuit frames AI training on copyrighted lyrics as infringement, not fair use — a theory that could implicate every major LLM.
Taylor Swift's trademark strategy bypasses the training-data debate entirely, targeting AI outputs that trade on her identity.
Courts are simultaneously adjudicating input liability, output ownership, and platform responsibility — without a shared doctrinal framework.

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