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Sony and Universal Sue Suno Again Over AI Model
Confirmed
In Short: Universal and Sony have filed a second lawsuit against AI music company Suno, alleging infringement on 60,202 sound recordings.
Universal and Sony Music Entertainment have filed a second lawsuit against AI music company Suno, alleging that the company's AI models infringe on 60,202 sound recordings.
The new lawsuit, filed after Suno's launch of version 6 of its AI model on licensed catalogues, asserts that Suno used recordings without permission.
In August, the court told Suno, 'The magnitude of the alleged infringement is not a defense,' according to The Next Web.
Suno had previously blocked users from prompting the AI with the names of specific recording artists, a policy cited by an investor as proof the models were built to generate 'completely new outputs.
Since January 2024, Suno's terms of service have required users to grant the company a 'worldwide, non-exclusive, fully paid-up, sublicensable' and 'irrevocable' license over anything uploaded.
The labels argue that Suno's actions show it knew training on someone’s audio requires permission.
Suno claims that all past models of its product that trained on unlicensed data would no longer be supported, but the labels contend that the new models remain in violation of their copyrighted works.
The lawsuit comes more than two years after the labels, together with Warner Music Group, sued Suno over allegedly training its AI models on their tracks without permission.
Since the initial suit in June 2024, WMG, BMG, and Believe have signed deals with Suno to license their content, which helped power the 'v6' models unveiled last week.
The complaint also puts a number to the recordings Sony Music and UMG allege Suno infringed on since its debut: 60,202, a total the labels claimed 'remain only a small portion' of the overall works violated.
The labels have asked the court to declare that Suno infringed upon their works, award them statutory damages, and force Suno to pay their attorneys' fees.
What this adds
The new lawsuit names twelve label entities, led by UMG Recordings and Sony Music Entertainment.
A forensic analysis of Suno’s training data had turned up the 60,202 sound recordings.
Suno has told investors its users generate a Spotify catalogue’s worth of output every two weeks.
The labels claim the deals reflect an admission by Suno that a market exists for licensing labels’ work, even as the company claims in court its training of its initial models adhered to the 'fair use' doctrine.
Background
The two largest music labels argue Suno's latest AI model still infringes on their copyrighted works.
Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment have filed a lawsuit against Suno, alleging the company's new AI model still infringes on their copyrighted works.
What's confirmed
- Universal and Sony Music Entertainment have filed a second lawsuit against AI music company Suno, alleging that the company's AI models infringe on 60,202 sound recordings.
- The new lawsuit, filed after Suno's launch of version 6 of its AI model on licensed catalogues, asserts that Suno used recordings without permission.
- In August, the court told Suno, 'The magnitude of the alleged infringement is not a defense,' according to The Next Web.
- Suno had previously blocked users from prompting the AI with the names of specific recording artists, a policy cited by an investor as proof the models were built to generate 'completely new outputs.
- Since January 2024, Suno's terms of service have required users to grant the company a 'worldwide, non-exclusive, fully paid-up, sublicensable' and 'irrevocable' license over anything uploaded.
- The labels argue that Suno's actions show it knew training on someone’s audio requires permission.
- Suno claims that all past models of its product that trained on unlicensed data would no longer be supported, but the labels contend that the new models remain in violation of their copyrighted works.
- The lawsuit comes more than two years after the labels, together with Warner Music Group, sued Suno over allegedly training its AI models on their tracks without permission.
- Since the initial suit in June 2024, WMG, BMG, and Believe have signed deals with Suno to license their content, which helped power the 'v6' models unveiled last week.
- The complaint also puts a number to the recordings Sony Music and UMG allege Suno infringed on since its debut: 60,202, a total the labels claimed 'remain only a small portion' of the overall works violated.
- The labels have asked the court to declare that Suno infringed upon their works, award them statutory damages, and force Suno to pay their attorneys' fees.
What's still developing
- Those recordings “presumably included recordings whose rights are owned by the Plaintiffs in this case”, Suno said, according to the filing.
- Nine days later Suno launched v6 on licensed catalogue.
- Suno has told investors its users generate a Spotify catalogue’s worth of output every two weeks.
- A forensic analysis of Suno’s training data had turned those up.
- “The harm Suno is causing goes far beyond these immediate economic consequences,” the complaint said.
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