Dark Bridge Records

Universal, Concord and ABKCO: a $3bn case over song lyrics

Universal Music Group, Concord and ABKCO filed suit against an AI company over more than 20,000 songs, claiming in excess of $3 billion — described by lawyers as possibly the single largest non-class action copyright case in US history.

The claim targets a text-model company whose systems allegedly ingested copyrighted lyrics without permission.

A detail easily missed. A lyric is a separate work from the recording and belongs to different rightsholders. The same song can be the subject of two different cases at once.