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Major record labels, including Universal, Sony, and Warner, have intensified their legal battle against AI music startup Suno, accusing the company of systematic copyright infringement through the unauthorized use of music sourced from YouTube. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing the labels, alleges that Suno knowingly circumvented YouTube’s security measures to ‘stream rip’ copyrighted tracks, using them to train its generative AI models.

The amended complaint asserts that Suno ’employed code to access, extract, copy, and download’ music without permission, violating YouTube’s terms of service and infringing on the copyrights of the labels. While Suno defends its actions under the fair use doctrine, the RIAA aims to dismantle this argument with its new claims. The RIAA is pursuing substantial damages, seeking $2,500 for each instance of circumvention of copyright protection technology and up to $150,000 for each copyrighted work infringed. The initial reporting of this lawsuit comes from The Verge.