{"id":3807,"date":"2025-01-21T16:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T16:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/germans-gema-takes-legal-action-against-suno-for-unlicensed-music-use\/"},"modified":"2025-01-21T16:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T16:24:17","slug":"germans-gema-takes-legal-action-against-suno-for-unlicensed-music-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/germans-gema-takes-legal-action-against-suno-for-unlicensed-music-use\/","title":{"rendered":"German’s GEMA Takes Legal Action Against Suno for Unlicensed Music Use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tBERLIN \u2014 In June, the three major labels sued the generative AI music companies Udio and Suno for training their software on copyrighted music without a license. Now, GEMA, the German PRO, is also taking legal action against Suno, in a case filed today (Jan. 21) in the Munich Regional Court.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an announcement, GEMA said that it documented that the Suno system outputs content that \u201clargely corresponds to world-famous works whose authors GEMA represents,\u201d including \u201cForever Young\u201d by Alphaville, \u201cMambo No. 5\u201d by Lou Bega and \u201cDaddy Cool\u201d by Milli Vanilli creator Frank Farian, among others.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAI providers such as Suno Inc. use our members\u2019 works without their consent and profit financially from them,\u201d said GEMA CEO Tobias Holzm\u00fcller<\/strong> in the announcement. \u201cGEMA is endeavoring to find solutions in partnership with the 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis case is very different from the litigation Suno faces in the U.S., which is spearheaded by the RIAA and involves recorded music owned by the major labels. Assuming that Suno has indeed trained its software on copyrighted recordings, as seems likely, that case will involve a determination of whether this would qualify as \u201cfair use\u201d \u2013 the legal doctrine that allows the unlicensed use of copyrighted works in some situations, including quotation and criticism. That can be notoriously complicated and it involves both specific facts and case law. It can also involve a great deal of money, since statutory damages for willful copyright infringement can reach $150,000 per work. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGEMA\u2019s case involves the copyrights to songs, which it represents as a PRO, rather than those of recordings. The relevant legislation would be the European Union\u2019s AI and Copyright directives, which allow copyright owners to \u201copt out\u201d of having their works scanned in order to train AI software, and require \u201cfair remuneration\u201d if they are used. This is one of the first big cases involving this issue in Europe, as well as the first against a big generative music company. Any damages would almost certainly be more modest than they would in the U.S., but the case could establish whether AI companies need to license copyrighted works for software training purposes. Whatever the result, it is easy to imagine it being appealed to higher courts in Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn November, GEMA also sued OpenAI for using lyrics of songs to which GEMA has rights in order to train its AI software. That case, also filed with the Munich Regional Court, only involves lyrics.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn its announcement, GEMA said Suno \u201coutputs content that obviously infringes copyrights.\u201d However, the issue in this case is not this output, but rather the music Suno has scanned during the process of training its software. If Suno has indeed scanned music for training purposes, it would presumably be infringing the rights in the songs as well as the recordings. Although a U.S. court could determine that this is fair use, that doctrine is a feature of Anglo-American law \u2013 the UK and British Commonwealth countries have \u201cfair dealing,\u201d which is similar but more limited \u2013 European laws are more strict. The EU Copyright Directive lays out \u201cexceptions and limitations\u201d to copyright, but it also provides authors and rightsholders the ability to opt-out of having their work scanned \u2013 or, as is more likely, to opt out until a license agreement is reached.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe lawsuit against Suno Inc. is part of an overall concept of measures taken by GEMA,\u201d said GEMA general counsel Kai Welp<\/strong> in the announcement of the case, \u201cat the end of which there will be fair treatment of authors and their remuneration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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