Suno Moves to Dismiss Jason Isbell's AI Music Lawsuit
The AI company argues that referencing an artist's style is a legal practice protected by the First Amendment.
As Suno’s legal tumult continues, the AI music company has moved to dismiss the class action lawsuit brought by Americana singer Jason Isbell. Isbell claimed that it’s illegal for Suno to let users make songs based on artists' identities. Suno argues there is “nothing unlawful” about the practice.
The details:
Suno said the feature is fair game because it is similar to an artist asking a producer to make a beat by using other musicians as a reference.
The company also invoked the First Amendment in regard to describing a genre by an artist's name.
Suno generally prevents users from typing in direct names as prompts, but reports have shown those rules can be bypassed with simple methods such as putting spaces between letters (“d r a k e” instead of Drake).
Suno has denied that such loopholes exist.
What they said:
Suno’s motion: “No state confers a right of publicity that prohibits a musician in a studio from saying to their producer, ‘let’s go for something here with more of a Jason Isbell vibe,’ and actually achieving that result without infringing any copyright or creating a likelihood of confusion over the identity of the performer. And what Suno does, by Plaintiffs’ own account, is no different.”
Suno attorney Andrew Gass: “The Complaint in this case turns on the premise that the law somehow condemns that universal practice. Congress made the considered policy choice not to confer intellectual property protection on an artistic style, precisely to allow subsequent creators to build on the prior works of a genre.”
👋 Disclosures & Transparency Block
This article was written with information sourced from Variety.
We covered it because of the ongoing conversation around AI in music.
