The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has intensified its legal action against the AI startup Suno, claiming that the company illicitly downloaded songs from YouTube to develop its generative AI music models. The revised complaint, submitted on September 19, asserts that Suno engaged in “stream ripping,” a method used to convert online streaming content into downloadable files, while ignoring protections against unauthorized duplication.
The amended lawsuit charges Suno with deploying software to access, extract, copy, and download copyrighted music from major labels such as Universal, Sony, and Warner. Furthermore, it alleges that Suno violated YouTube’s terms of service by bypassing the site’s “rolling cipher” encryption. According to the complaint, this infringement has enabled Suno to commit widespread breaches of copyright, contravening the anti-circumvention laws outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Section 1201 of the DMCA mandates that no individual may circumvent a technological measure that effectively regulates access to a protected work. The application of this regulation has expanded significantly in recent years, affecting a range of issues from phone unlocking to appliance repairs. This lawsuit invokes Section 1201 in its original context, aiming to hinder potential piracy linked to digital rights management (DRM). While there are provisions under Section 1201 for exceptions allowing circumvention under specific conditions, such exceptions for training AI models have not yet been established.
Suno has not disclosed the specifics of its training datasets and has been ambiguous about the sources of its data. The startup maintains that its use of copyrighted materials for training falls under fair use protections, a claim supported by at least one judicial ruling, although there remains no clear legal consensus. The revised complaint targets this defense by referencing findings from the ICMP publishers group, which indicates that Suno may have illegally acquired its training data by circumventing YouTube’s encryption technologies. This is particularly relevant when considering parallels to Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement over book piracy, although this case is presently inactive.
The RIAA’s updated complaint asserts that Suno has incorporated “decades worth of the world’s most popular sound recordings” into its AI systems without the necessary permissions. Consequently, the organization is pursuing statutory damages amounting to $2,500 for each act of circumvention, in addition to claims of up to $150,000 for each infringed work.
