Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, successfully defended against a preliminary injunction sought by music publishers such as Universal Music Group. The publishers alleged that Anthropic was using copyrighted lyrics without permission to train its AI chatbot, Claude. However, U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee ruled in favor of Anthropic, stating that the publishers' request was overly broad and they did not demonstrate that Anthropic's actions caused them irreparable harm.

The music publishers, including UMG, Concord, and ABKCO, filed a lawsuit against Anthropic for allegedly infringing on copyrights of lyrics from over 500 songs. They claimed that Anthropic used these lyrics to train their AI chatbot without authorization.

This case is part of a broader legal issue where copyrighted material is being used without consent to develop AI technologies. Companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms argue that such use falls under "fair use" as they are transforming the content to create something new.

While fair use will likely play a crucial role in these lawsuits, Judge Lee did not specifically address that issue in her ruling. She dismissed the publishers' argument that Anthropic's use of their lyrics harmed their licensing market, emphasizing that defining a licensing market for AI training without settling the fair use question is premature.