CANADIAN MUSIC PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION SUES AI MUSIC PLATFORM SUNO OVER COPYRIGHT

The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has filed a lawsuit against AI music generation platform Suno, alleging extensive copyright infringement. SOCAN claims Suno trained its AI models using copyrighted music without securing necessary licenses or permissions.

The lawsuit asserts that Suno has utilized "mass ingestion, copying, and processing" of available music material to train its model. The association also alleges that Suno generates outputs that are identical or substantially similar to protected works. SOCAN is seeking damages, including Suno's profits from the alleged infringement, or alternatively, CAD $20,000 in statutory damages per infringed work, plus $10 million in punitive damages.

Furthermore, SOCAN claims that Suno has continued to generate and distribute infringing material even after the implementation of so-called guardrails. The association deems these safeguards "woefully inadequate" and argues that Suno's conduct was deliberate rather than incidental. The filing presents examples where Suno's generated tracks significantly resemble existing works, such as Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" or "Life is a Highway."

The suit specifically targets the platform's ability to generate music based on user prompts. SOCAN contends that Suno enables the reproduction or imitation of protected musical works, and that the platform's business model relies on this capability. The association is seeking a permanent injunction against the platform's operations and reimbursement for legal costs.