A landmark European case in AI music copyright law is set to reach a conclusion on July 31, when the Munich Regional Court is expected to deliver its verdict in the lawsuit brought by GEMA, Germany's music collecting society, against Suno AI, a US-based company that generates songs from text prompts.
In the case filed in January 2025, GEMA argues that Suno trained its AI models on copyrighted music without obtaining licences or compensating its rights holders.
The lawsuit is being closely watched, as it is one of the first major cases anywhere in the world to test how traditional copyright law applies to AI music training and AI-generated music outputs. Furthermore, Suno has argued that the German court does not have proper jurisdiction to rule on AI model training activities that occurred exclusively inside the United States.
Paul McCartney & Rosalia: Strategies for surviving AI music To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 videoThe proceedings could help determine whether AI music companies must obtain licenses before training their models on copyrighted songs, and whether AI-generated music that closely resembles existing songs constitutes copyright infringement.
