SOCAN sues Suno over music used in AI platform

SOCAN has filed a lawsuit against Suno Inc., alleging the company’s generative AI platform produced and streamed outputs that replicate human-created musical works without consent or payment. The organization says the conduct infringed performing rights in songs from SOCAN’s repertoire.

SOCAN alleges Suno built its business by training generative AI models on virtually all music files readily accessible on the Internet without securing the required permissions or licences. The claim says Suno made its platform available to the public in Canada, generated outputs similar or identical to SOCAN-represented songs, and streamed those outputs to users in Canada and around the world.

The lawsuit lists a sample of 150 publicly available Suno outputs that SOCAN says it has identified, with the organization expecting additional unauthorized outputs and activities to emerge during litigation. SOCAN says the action is intended to ensure music creators and publishers are respected and compensated as AI systems develop.