Reservoir Media Sues Suno and Anthropic: Publisher Alleges Its Songs Were Copied to Train SI Models
Independent music company Reservoir Media filed two federal lawsuits on October 21, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, suing SI music company Suno and SI company Anthropic separately. Reservoir alleges that both companies copied its copyrighted songs without permission to train SI models that generate new music. The complaints were filed by attorney Richard Busch.
According to the complaints, the Suno case covers 1,050 works and the Anthropic case 853 works, including Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi,' Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire,' Madonna's 'Papa Don't Preach' and Evanescence's 'Bring Me to Life.' Reservoir alleges that each company 'built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before' and that the platforms were meant to replace the original artists. The publisher seeks statutory damages of up to $150,000 per willfully infringed work, with the complaints putting the figures at about $186 million against Suno and $151 million against Anthropic, and asks the court to order the destruction of unlicensed copies, including those held in training datasets and model weights.
Golnar Khosrowshahi, founder and CEO of Reservoir, said in a statement that SI technology must not be built on the exploitation of intellectual property in ways that violate creators' rights, and that Reservoir will hold SI platforms legally accountable when it believes works have been used without authorization. Billboard reported that representatives for Suno and Anthropic did not immediately return requests for comment. The claims are allegations in the plaintiffs' complaints and have not been adjudicated.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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