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January 21, 2025
The Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) has filed a lawsuit against the US AI music company Suno Inc. at the Munich Regional Court. The accusation: Suno's AI music generation tool uses copyrighted recordings from the GEMA repertoire without appropriate licensing and without compensating the artists.
GEMA argues that the music generated by Suno's AI shows strong similarities to well-known songs. Examples cited include titles like "Forever Young" and "Atemlos" (Breathless). The organization sees this as a violation of the copyrights of its members.
Dr. Tobias Holzmüller, CEO of GEMA, emphasizes the need for respectful handling of the rights of creatives in the context of the growing AI market. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Dr. Ralf Weigand, also calls for new legal frameworks to ensure fair compensation by AI companies.
This legal dispute follows a lawsuit already filed in November 2024 by GEMA against OpenAI. In that case, it concerned the use of copyrighted song lyrics by ChatGPT. GEMA had proposed that AI companies should pay 30% of their net revenue for the use of copyrighted material.
The dispute between GEMA and Suno is one of a series of conflicts between copyright holders and AI companies. Worldwide, a final regulation on the fair use of copyrighted material in the training of AI systems is still awaited.
Suno is not only facing pressure from GEMA. Major record labels have also already filed copyright lawsuits against the company. Mikey Shulman, co-founder of Suno, argues that critics misunderstand the technology. The AI learns musical patterns and structures – similar to how a human learns by listening to music – and does not copy specific songs. This defense strategy, which distinguishes "learning" from "stealing," is similar to the arguments of other AI companies in comparable cases.
The outcome of the proceedings remains to be seen and could be groundbreaking for dealing with AI-generated music and the associated copyright issues. The court's decision is eagerly awaited and could significantly influence the future development of the AI music industry.
Sources: - https://the-decoder.com/german-music-rights-org-gema-takes-us-ai-music-startup-suno-to-court-for-alleged-infringement/ - https://www.gema.de/en/news/ai-and-music/ai-lawsuit - https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/500m-valued-suno-hit-with-new-copyright-lawsuit-from-germanys-gema/ - https://www.gema.de/de/w/pm-klage-gegen-suno - https://www.billboard.com/pro/germany-gema-legal-action-suno-copyright-infringement/ - https://www.cisac.org/Newsroom/society-news/fair-remuneration-demanded-gema-files-lawsuit-against-suno-inc - https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/openai-sued-by-gema-in-germany-for-unlicensed-use-of-song-lyrics/ - https://nquiringminds.com/ai-legal-news/gema-sues-openai-over-copyright-infringement-of-song-lyrics/ - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/musically_german-collecting-society-gema-sues-openai-activity-7262412749425586176-uaGT - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-martin-gerecke-_updated-german-music-rights-body-targets-activity-7265009460287340544-y1Tk