Music labels' AI lawsuits create new US copyright puzzle
STORY: :: Major music labels have entered the high-stakes
copyright battle over AI-generated content
:: Blake Brittain, Legal reporter, Reuters
"There are these two startups called Suno and Udio that allow users to create music and lyrics through the entry of simple text props. It has spawned lawsuits from major record labels Sony Music, UMG, Warner Music. They allege that these companies use their recordings to train the systems without permission, without licenses, without payment. They say you can hear sound-alikes from artists like ABBA and Bruce Springsteen, and that the companies reproduce specific parts of specific songs. These lawsuits are similar to cases that have already been brought against OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta over their high profile chat bots like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Those lawsuits were filed by authors, news outlets, other writers of text, making similar allegations that their work has been used without permission. // These cases are already interesting. There's going to be a lot of complicated issues associated with them. But, the added factor of music makes things a little more complicated."
:: One artist told Reuters she considers
an AI-generated song as 'stealing'
BRITTAIN: "I talked to a musician named Tift Merritt, acclaimed, accomplished, Americana musician from North Carolina. She's been a long time musicians' rights advocate. And she's concerned about these systems basically stealing her music and using it to replace her. I experimented with these systems by asking them to reproduce an Americana song in the style of Tift Merritt. Their results were very interesting. It didn't, you know, use any of her specific lyrics, any specific melodies, but what we got was pretty similar to the vibe of her music, overall. It was pretty fascinating, and I can see why she would be concerned."
:: Suno and Udio have defended the tech, saying it's
'transformative' and reflects 'new musical ideas'
Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music sued Udio and another music AI company called Suno last month, marking the music industry's entrance into high-stakes copyright battles over AI-generated content that are just starting to make their way through the courts.
Both Suno and Udio defended their technology following the lawsuits, in public statements that they cited in response to requests for comment on this story. Suno CEO Mikey Shulman said in his statement that its technology is "transformative."
Udio said its system is "explicitly designed to create music reflecting new musical ideas."
