Washington, DC (June 25, 2024)—Hard on the heels of the announcement that dozens of music industry organizations are putting their support behind a set of principles for music creation with AI, the Recording Industry Association of America has filed two copyright infringement cases against AI tech companies Suno and Udio.
The RIAA’s filings are based on the mass infringement of copyrighted sound recordings copied and exploited without permission by the two multi-million-dollar music generation services. The plaintiffs in the cases are music companies that hold rights to sound recordings infringed by Suno and Udio, including Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Inc., and Warner Records, Inc. The claims cover recordings by artists of multiple genres, styles and eras, according to a statement from the RIAA.
“The music community has embraced AI and we are already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers to build sustainable AI tools centered on human creativity that put artists and songwriters in charge,” said RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier. “But we can only succeed if developers are willing to work together with us. Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”
RIAA chief legal officer Ken Doroshow added, “These are straightforward cases of copyright infringement involving unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a massive scale. Suno and Udio are attempting to hide the full scope of their infringement rather than putting their services on a sound and lawful footing. These lawsuits are necessary to reinforce the most basic rules of the road for the responsible, ethical, and lawful development of generative AI systems and to bring Suno’s and Udio’s blatant infringement to an end.”
The cases seek: (1) declarations that the two services infringed plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings; (2) injunctions barring the services from infringing plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings in the future; and (3) damages for the infringements that have already occurred.
Among those commenting on the actions was Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “New technology has been a valuable tool used by generations of music creators, and there is no reason responsible generative artificial intelligence will be any different,” he said. “To maintain the trust of artists and fans alike, AI companies must properly gain permission from and compensate creators when using their works, and we support the RIAA in taking action against services that seek to improperly profit from the creators and iconic sound recordings that make these services function.”
