Suno loses German copyright rap over 113,000 hours of borrowed beats 🎵

A Munich court has ruled against AI music startup Suno in a copyright lawsuit brought by German music rights organization GEMA, ordering the company to obtain licenses covering both the training of its AI models and the generation of music. The Munich Regional Court found that Suno violated copyright law by using music from GEMA's catalog to train its AI models and by reproducing protected works without a license, according to a Variety report.

The lawsuit centered on six songs, including "Daddy Cool," "Rasputin," "Forever Young," and "Mambo No. 5." GEMA accused Suno of training its AI on copyrighted songs without permission. Suno said the ruling is based on a misunderstanding of how its technology works and that it is considering its legal options, including an appeal.

"Our tools give people the ability to create new songs, whether they are top artists, product developers, songwriters using our tools in their workflows or everyday music fans," Suno said in a statement. "From the beginning, we trained our models to create new songs, not reproduce existing ones, and built protections into our platform. We disagree with today's ruling—which rests on a fundamental mischaracterization of how Suno's technology works, how it is used and how U.S. law applies—and are evaluating all available options, including an appeal."

The decision comes about eight months after GEMA won a separate copyright case against OpenAI, in which a Munich court ruled that ChatGPT unlawfully reproduced copyrighted song lyrics. Earlier this month, leaked source code showed Suno's training data included more than 113,000 hours of YouTube Music, 62,000 hours from Pond5, and 12,000 hours from Deezer, supporting claims by the music industry that Suno trained its AI on copyrighted recordings without permission, allegations Suno continues to fight in court.