Sony Music and Universal Music Group (UMG) have filed a new lawsuit against AI music generator Suno, accusing the company of copyright infringement related to its latest model.
What Happened
The major labels claim that Suno’s new v6 model continues to infringe on their copyrights. According to the complaint, the v6 model is trained on user outputs generated by Suno's previous models. The labels argue that these earlier models were themselves trained on unlicensed music sourced from platforms like YouTube.
Sony and UMG characterize this practice as "model laundering." In their filing, they state that training a "new" model on the outputs of an "infringing model does not eliminate the infringement; it launders it," effectively passing the value of the plaintiffs' expression from the copied recordings into the new system.
Why It Matters
This legal action highlights the ongoing tension between AI developers and the music industry regarding training data provenance. Sony and UMG are notable holdouts in the sector, having not signed a licensing agreement with Suno. The case raises significant questions about whether iterative model training, where new versions rely on the outputs of previous versions, can perpetuate copyright violations if the underlying training data was not properly licensed.
The Bottom Line
Sony and UMG remain in active litigation against Suno, asserting that the v6 model's reliance on outputs from prior unlicensed training cycles constitutes continued copyright infringement.