AI music startup Suno claimed that the company's usage of copyrighted songs was done legally under the fair-use doctrine.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a lawsuit against Suno and Udio last June, citing violations of copyright infringement.
Suno Admits Usage of Copyrighted Songs but Claims Fair-Use
Suno revealed in a recent court filing that it did use copyrighted music to train its AI model. Investors of the company previously hinted that the company used the songs without any legal permission from the music labels.
"We train our models on medium- and high-quality music we can find on the open internet... Much of the open internet indeed contains copyrighted materials, and some of it is owned by major record labels," said Mikey Shulman, CEO and co-founder of Suno in a blog post.
The company is being investigated for using tens of millions of copyrighted materials to train its model without acquiring a license and agreement from the music labels. The company is determined to convince the court that obtaining materials from "open internet" is not infringing.
RIAA Refutes Suno's Claims of Fair Use in Ongoing AI Lawsuit
RIAA represents major music labels such as the Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records, which all claim that their artists are being exploited by AI music startups like Sudo and Udio.
The association emphasized that it took a lawsuit for Sudo to admit its usage of copyrighted materials. "There's nothing fair about stealing an artist's life's work, extracting its core value, and repackaging it to compete directly with the originals," RIAA added.
The entertainment industry has been on the rocks with the surge of generative AI. RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier stated that while the industry is open to collaborating, several companies still choose to infringe copyrighted content.
