Sony Music and Universal Music Group (UMG) have initiated fresh legal proceedings against Suno, marking the latest escalation in their ongoing intellectual property dispute. The two major record labels argue that Suno’s recently released v6 model continues to infringe upon their copyrights, despite the company’s claims of using new training methodologies.
According to the complaint obtained by The Verge, the central allegation involves what the labels describe as “model laundering.” Sony and UMG contend that Suno trained its v6 system on outputs generated by previous versions of the platform. These earlier models were themselves trained on unlicensed music sourced from YouTube and other online repositories without proper authorization from rights holders.
The lawsuit asserts that simply training a new model on the outputs of an infringing one does not erase the original copyright violations. Instead, the labels argue, it merely masks the infringement, effectively passing the value of the plaintiffs’ creative expression from copied recordings into the new system.
Notably, Sony and UMG remain significant holdouts in negotiations with Suno, having declined to sign the licensing agreements that other major music publishers have entered into with the AI music generator. The case underscores the intensifying legal challenges faced by AI companies as they navigate complex copyright landscapes involving large-scale data training.
Wait, so training on outputs of infringing models doesn’t count? But where do you draw the line for AI data anyway? This is messy.
I’m genuinely surprised Sony is still fighting this alone. Didn’t they settle with everyone else? Guess they really think they can win.
Model laundering? That’s a scary new term for a familiar problem. Labels are trying to stop the bleeding before it spreads further.