Suno Sued by Canadian Music Rights Organization SOCAN for Copyright Infringement

SOCAN is taking legal action against Suno.

The Canadian music rights organization has filed a legal claim against the AI music generation app, claiming that it has unlawfully infringed on its members’ work.

SOCAN is asking the court to “require Suno to comply with copyright law, stop making infringing outputs available” and “respect the rights of music creators and publishers whenever their works are used.” Related Suno Sued Again, Accused of Training Model on Mexican Music Catalog to Make Spanish AI Songs Tupac Shakur's Family Reacts to Duane 'Keffe D' Davis' Murder Conviction: 'This Is Not the End of the Story' Major Lazer to Headline Melbourne's New Year's at the Bowl SOCAN has put forward a subset of 150 AI outputs generated by Suno that largely or fully infringe on material from its member rightsholders, dating back to Suno’s introduction to the Canadian market in 2023.

“Suno launched its service in Canada [in December 2023] without having contacted us, without seeking consent from SOCAN, and any discussions we’ve had after that launch have not proved fruitful,” Andrea Kokonis , chief legal officer and general counsel of SOCAN, tells Billboard Canada .

“We want to ensure that our members are paid when their songs are used, and we do want to send a clear signal to AI services that there are consequences when they use music without permission.” Along with the lawsuit, SOCAN has launched a special website showcasing a number of Suno outputs side-by-side with the songs they are allegedly infringing on.

Those include major hits like Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway,” Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” and even post-hardcore band Alexisonfire’s “Passing Out In America.” Listen here .

“Creators were never asked, never informed, and never given the chance to say no,” the site reads.

Kokonis explains that the lawsuit’s goal is to double down on existing copyright protection, showing that the laws that protect songwriters, composers, and music publishers apply equally in the AI era as they have before.

She adds that given the direct competition between outputs generated by Suno and the music created by human artists, it is important for songwriters to be fairly compensated.

Related Jason Isbell Files Class Action Lawsuit Claiming Suno Coded AI to ‘Extract Musicians’ Identities’ “SOCAN has a responsibility to act when the rights of music creators and publishers are put at risk.

The evidence shows that the Suno platform has generated and streamed outputs that copy works in our repertoire, and that cannot go unchallenged,” says Jennifer Brown , CEO of SOCAN.

“Innovation can’t come at the expense of human creativity.