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AI music generator loses a copyright case over using human art as 'inspiration'

A court ruled that the model could not use the work of the artists to train itself.
David Caballero Editor-in-Chief Spain 7 August 2026

Via Mixmag.

Suno is an artificial intelligence music generator company that has now lost a copyright case in Germany, as the Munich Regional Court ruled in favour of German performance rights organisation GEMA, concluding that Suno was never entitled to use GEMA-represented music to train its generative AI model.

Same as other similar cases in recent times, the ruling says AI training can still infringe copyright. According to the report below, the court found that Suno has used, stored, and reproduced copyrighted music without a license, breaching both German and US copyright law.

As other organisations demand, the decision could increase pressure on AI music companies to pay for licenses. Suno now faces damages, still to be determined, while the ruling strengthens GEMA's argument that AI companies must license music catalogues before using them commercially in any way. And beyond musician representative groups, Suno also faces other lawsuits from major labels including Universal and Sony.

Editor-in-Chief Spain David Caballero was editor-in-chief of Gamereactor Spain, writing for the site from 2011. He covered video games alongside film, tech and wider culture, and interviewed developers at events across Europe.
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