Claude's new system prompt really doesn't want to reproduce song lyrics
infonewsLLM-Specific
safety
Source: Simon Willison's WeblogSeptember 2, 2026
Summary
Anthropic updated Claude's system prompt (the set of instructions that guide how Claude behaves) to prevent reproducing song lyrics, poems, and copyrighted visual works like characters and logos. The update likely followed lawsuits from Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell over training on song lyrics databases, and Claude now declines such requests throughout a conversation and offers to analyze the work instead.
Classification
Attack SophisticationModerate
Impact (CIA+S)
safety
AI Component TargetedModel
Affected Vendors
Anthropic
Related Issues
Monthly digest — independent AI security research
Original source: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/2/claudes-new-system-prompt/
First tracked: September 2, 2026 at 02:00 PM
Classified by LLM (prompt v3) · confidence: 85%