Sony and UMG file new lawsuit

Sony and Universal Music Group sued Suno again, claiming its new v6 model infringes their copyrights because it was trained on outputs from previous models built on unlicensed music from YouTube and other sources.

The 'model laundering' accusation

In their complaint, Sony and UMG accuse Suno of model laundering, arguing that training a new model on outputs of an infringing model does not eliminate infringement but launders it through successive generations.

“Training a 'new' model on the outputs of an infringing model does not eliminate the infringement; it launders it.”

Suno's defense of v6

Suno's Jack Brody said v6 was trained from the ground up with a new set of data. Spokesperson Rachel Racusen later confirmed this included content licensed from partners, user creations, and community interactions.

Sony alleges distillation technique

Sony further alleges that Suno used distillation to train v6, claiming it was trained to replicate results from previous teacher models that were created using infringing data.

Labels' core argument

Sony and UMG argue that unless Suno truly starts from scratch, its models will continue to be built on stolen data. Even models not directly trained on their recordings benefit from Suno's retained unauthorized copies.

“even a model not directly trained on Plaintiffs' recordings is informed by, and benefits from, Suno's retained unauthorized copies.”