A new essay traces how media mogul Steve Ross built his fortune not through glamorous entertainment deals but by acquiring a series of mundane businesses—limousine rentals, parking lots, cleaning services, and building trades—before rolling them into Kinney Services and eventually using that platform to acquire Warner Bros. The piece highlights the overlooked, unglamorous groundwork that preceded his transformation into one of America's best-paid executives, earning $78 million in 1990.
colossus.com
· 2026-09-01
Sony Music and Warner filed a lawsuit against Anthropic late Friday, alleging the AI company trained its Claude models on tens of thousands of copyrighted song lyrics and compositions without permission. The publishers are seeking up to $150,000 per infringed work plus $25,000 for each instance of stripped copyright data, potentially totaling billions in damages, and cite songs like 'Livin' on a Prayer' and 'Hallelujah' among the works allegedly used.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-31
Sony Music, Warner Music and other major publishers filed suit against Anthropic, accusing the AI company of illegally torrenting and scraping tens of thousands of copyrighted compositions to train its Claude models. The 48-page complaint claims Anthropic co-founder Benjamin Mann personally downloaded millions of pirated books via BitTorrent and that the company also lifted lyrics from licensed sites like MusixMatch and LyricFind.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-08-29
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have filed a joint lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging the AI company illegally torrented and scraped thousands of copyrighted musical compositions to train its Claude models. The publishers are seeking a jury trial and statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work plus $25,000 for each removal of copyright management information, a total that could reach into the billions.
engadget.com
· 2026-08-29
Sony Music and Warner Chappell have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in federal court in California, accusing the company of using tens of thousands of copyrighted songs and lyrics to train its Claude AI models without permission. The complaint names Anthropic's co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann individually, alleging they pirated millions of books via BitTorrent and scraped lyrics from licensed sites like MusixMatch and LyricFind. The publishers are seeking damages that could total billions of dollars if courts award the maximum penalties per work.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-29
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