We already warned when we debated this at Gutun Zuria 2024: AI is made up of traces of copyrighted works, and that world must be subject to the control of the authors. GEMA is taking legal action against Suno Inc., an American provider of AI-generated audio content. It is accusing the company of processing protected recordings of world-famous songs from GEMA's repertoire in the tool without paying remuneration. In numerous cases, the AI tool generated audio content that is confusingly similar to the original songs.
To enforce the rights of its members, GEMA filed a lawsuit against the AI provider Suno Inc. with the Munich Regional Court on 21 January 2025. The music tool makes it possible to generate playable audio content using simple prompts. GEMA was able to document that the system outputs content that obviously infringes copyrights. 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. Users of the premium version of the AI tool, on the other hand, have to pay a subscription fee to Suno Inc.
In Germany GEMA represents copyrights for over 95,000 members (composers, lyricists and music publishers) and over two million copyrights owners from all over the world. It is one of the largest societies for creators of musical works in the world.
Here is EKKI's reflection, from the 15th minute:
https://bizkaiairratia.eus/podcast/literatureari-nagusi-aste-honetako-herriz-herri-saio-berezian/