Anthropic co-cofounder Benjamin Mann filed an amended answer to Concord Music II’s Second Amended Complaint. It looks like many changes pertain to the affirmative defenses. Fair use is now No. 1:
Also, very interesting to see Mann challenge the allegation that the Plaintiffs’ lyrics were actually contained in specific books in the alleged datasets:
“Moreover, Plaintiffs allege that Mr. Mann acquired “books that plainly contain Publishers’ musical compositions,” SAC ¶ 4, and provide a list of hundreds of song titles, Dkt. Nos. 93-1; 93-2, but do not provide any one book alleged to contain such a musical composition. Assuming that any one composition, taken as a whole, is protectable by copyright, Mr. Mann has no way of knowing, at this juncture, how much, and what elements, of that composition were actually contained in any one book he is alleged to have acquired (and thus alleged to have infringed upon).”
That was a lurking question about the allegations: how are musical lyrics in the books datasets?
Redlined Version of Changes in Amended Answer of Benjamin Mann:
