AI music startup Suno has lost a copyright case in Germany after a court sided with music rights organization GEMA.
According to Variety, 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. The ruling says AI companies must obtain licenses for commercial use of GEMA’s repertoire, covering both AI model training and music generation.
The lawsuit focused on six songs
The case 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 says the court misunderstood its technology
In a statement, Suno said it built its platform to help people create new music rather than reproduce existing songs. The company said the ruling was based on a misunderstanding of how its technology works and that it is considering its legal options.
Suno said: “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. 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.”
Decision follows an earlier OpenAI case
The ruling came about eight months after GEMA won a separate copyright case against OpenAI. In that case, a Munich court ruled that ChatGPT had unlawfully reproduced copyrighted song lyrics.
Wider scrutiny over Suno’s training data
The decision also lands as Suno faces growing legal scrutiny over how it built its AI models.
Earlier this month, leaked source code showed that the company’s training data included more than 113,000 hours of YouTube Music, 62,000 hours from Pond5, and 12,000 hours from Deezer. Those details supported claims from the music industry that Suno trained its AI on copyrighted recordings without permission, allegations the company is still contesting in court.