German Court Rules Against AI Music Service Suno in Copyright Case
The ruling is a first-instance decision that could shape how AI music services handle copyrighted material in Europe, with Suno already facing a separate lawsuit from major record labels in the US.
Reporting from 1 source: KAI-YOU.
A Munich court ruled on July 31 that AI music service Suno infringed copyright by using songs managed by German rights group GEMA without permission. The court ordered Suno to disclose revenue information and pay damages, though the ruling is not final.
The Munich I Regional Court found that Suno used a technique called stream ripping to obtain music from YouTube, bypassing protection technology that prevents downloading. GEMA had submitted audio files generated by Suno as evidence, arguing these showed the songs were stored in the AI model.
Suno countered that the songs were not protected by copyright and that the outputs were not identifiable. The company also argued that model weights and parameters do not store training data directly, only general features and patterns. Suno said GEMA had deliberately adjusted prompts to produce the disputed audio.
The case is separate from a 2024 lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group through the RIAA. Suno has argued that using recordings for training constitutes fair use under US copyright law. In November 2025, Suno settled with Warner Music Group and agreed to develop new AI models using licensed music.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.