Now, Suno is also being sued by GEMA, the German collection society and licensing body, for alleged copyright infringement.
GEMA represents the copyrights of around 95,000 members in Germany (composers, lyricists, music publishers) as well as over two million rightsholders worldwide.
GEMA accuses the AI company of “processing protected recordings of world-famous songs” without permission or remuneration.
According to GEMA, there are various instances where the AI tool generates audio content “that is confusingly similar to the original songs” such as Forever Young, Daddy Cool, Mambo No. 5 or Cheri Cheri Lady.
GEMA filed a lawsuit against the AI provider Suno Inc. with the Munich Regional Court today (January 21).
The collection society has also published audio samples of the songs generated by Suno and a video explainer from musicologist Julia Blum demonstrating the similarities between the original version of Boney M.’s Daddy Cool and Suno’s “AI plagiarism.”
According to GEMA, Suno’s AI music tool “makes it possible to generate playable audio content using simple prompts”. The collection society said that it “was able to document that the [Suno] system outputs content that obviously infringes copyrights”.
Added GEMA: “In terms of melody, harmony and rhythm, this content largely corresponds to world-famous works whose authors GEMA represents.
“The results clearly show that Suno Inc. has systematically used GEMA’s repertoire for the training of its music tool and is now exploiting it commercially without giving the authors of the works a financial share.”
GEMA alleges that Suno is ripping off songs by Alphaville (Forever Young), Kristina Bach (Atemlos), Lou Bega (Mambo No. 5), Frank Farian (Daddy Cool), and Modern Talking (Cheri Cheri Lady).
GEMA’s lawsuit against Suno arrives just two months after the org took legal action against OpenAI, the $157 billion-valued US-based AI giant behind ChatGPT.
GEMA alleged that OpenAI, via its ChatGPT chatbot, “reproduce[es] protected song lyrics by German authors without having acquired licenses or paid the authors in question”.
The OpenAI lawsuit arrived just over a month after GEMA proposed a generative AI licensing model.
In November, GEMA launched an ‘AI Charter’ calling for a responsible approach to generative AI. GEMA also launched a microsite dedicated to its legal action against OpenAI.
“AI providers such as Suno Inc. use our members’ works without their consent and profit financially from them.”
Dr Tobias Holzmüller, GEMA
Commenting on the legal action against Suno, Dr Tobias Holzmüller, CEO of GEMA, said: “Human creativity is the basis of all generative AI. But this market has so far lacked basic principles such as transparency, fairness and respect.
“AI providers such as Suno Inc. use our members’ works without their consent and profit financially from them. At the same time, the output generated in this way competes with the works created by humans and deprives them of their economic basis. GEMA is endeavoring to find solutions in partnership with AI companies. But this will not work without adhering to the necessary basic rules of fair cooperation and, above all, it will not work without the acquisition of licenses.”
Dr Ralf Weigand, Chairman of GEMA’s Supervisory Board, added: “Generative AI tools such as the music tool from Suno Inc. make uninhibited use of compositions and texts that do not belong to them.
“If we don’t want to do without man-made music in the future, we urgently need a legal framework that guarantees authors an appropriate share of the value created by AI providers. Otherwise, we will very quickly reach the point where no one will be able to make a living from their creative work – a ‘brave new world’ after all human creativity in music has ended! ’
Dr Kai Welp, General Counsel of GEMA, said: “Providers of generative AI must respect copyright law and remunerate authors for their creative work. Unfortunately, many AI providers have deliberately ignored this matter of course in the past. This must change. The lawsuit against Suno Inc. is part of an overall concept of measures taken by GEMA, at the end of which there will be fair treatment of authors and their remuneration.”
