{"id":106036,"date":"2025-09-23T15:40:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/?p=106036"},"modified":"2025-09-23T15:40:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:40:56","slug":"the-music-industry-doubles-down-on-lawsuit-against-suno-adding-fresh-stream-ripping-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/the-music-industry-doubles-down-on-lawsuit-against-suno-adding-fresh-stream-ripping-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"The music industry doubles down on lawsuit against Suno, adding fresh \u2018stream ripping\u2019 allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RIAA ups the pressure on AI music generator Suno, accusing it of ripping songs from YouTube to train its model.<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The RIAA ups the anti<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has stepped up its legal fight against AI music generator Suno, according to MBW<\/a>. Representing the big three labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group), the RIAA has amended its lawsuit to include a new allegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The updated complaint alleges that Suno relied on the popular privacy method \u2018stream ripping\u2019 to download millions of copyrighted sound recordings from YouTube<\/a>. These ripped tracks were then used to train the company\u2019s AI model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The added allegations can be found from page 16 onwards here<\/a><\/strong>, with a key section reading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuno acquired many (if not all) of the copyrighted sound recordings in its training data by illicitly downloading them from YouTube using a notorious method of music piracy known as \u2018stream ripping\u2019\u201d.<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A follow-up to another recent AI legal battle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This addition comes just weeks after AI company Anthropic<\/a> agreed to pay a $1.5 billion settlement to authors. That case also centred on evidence that copyrighted works had been illegally scraped and downloaded to train its AI model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parallels aren\u2019t lost on the majors. They now believe Suno likely trained their model in a similar fashion. The labels argue this act violates the Copyright Act\u2019s anti-circumvention rules, which exist to stop people from bypassing protections (protections that YouTube had in place) to guard protected works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s at stake?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the major labels want compensation for any work that Suno illegally copied. They\u2019re now seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work infringed plus $2,500 for each time YouTube\u2019s protections were bypassed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, the lawsuit argues that Suno wouldn\u2019t have landed its reported $125 million in funding or its 12 million paid users without piggybacking off copyrighted music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The music industry Vs AI music generators Udio & Suno<\/a><\/blockquote>