Sony Music, Universal Music Group Sue Suno Over Label-Backed Model: ‘Fruit of the Same Poisoned Tree’ — SkimNews
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- Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group filed a 45-page lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against Suno, alleging the AI company's newly unveiled "v6" model still infringes their copyrights despite being backed by licensing deals with other labels.
- The labels argue that Suno's own admission that v6 was trained on outputs of its prior models means the new version is not a fresh start but "the fruit of the same poisoned tree," and that "every model Suno has ever released" continues to exploit unauthorized copies.
- Sony and UMG identified 60,202 specific recordings they claim Suno infringed, calling that total "only a small portion" of the overall works violated.
- The suit comes more than two years after Sony, UMG, and Warner Music Group sued Suno in June 2024; since then, Warner, BMG, and Believe have signed licensing deals that helped power v6.
- Suno has said past unlicensed models will no longer be supported, but the labels contend v6 is "a product of those tainted models," and Suno had no immediate comment on the new filing.
- The labels seek a court declaration of infringement, statutory damages, and attorneys' fees, warning that Suno's conduct "threatens the entire music ecosystem."
Why it matters: Sony and UMG argue that training new AI models on outputs from earlier, infringing models perpetuates the original violation across 60,202 alleged recordings — even when fresh licensing deals are in place. A court win could expose Suno to statutory damages and undermine any competitor that built atop older scraped-data models, while rivals like Udio, which licensed from the start, gain structural ground.
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