Sony, UMG sue Suno again over v6 training data
The labels accuse Suno's new v6 model of "model laundering" — training on outputs of earlier models that were themselves built on unlicensed music — in a complaint shared with The Verge.
Sony Music and Universal Music Group filed a new lawsuit against Suno on Friday, The Verge reported. The labels claim Suno's new v6 model still infringes their copyrights. They say v6 was trained on outputs from Suno's earlier models, which were themselves built on unlicensed music taken from YouTube and other sources.
In the complaint, shared with The Verge, Sony and UMG accused Suno of "model laundering." Training a new model on the outputs of an infringing model does not eliminate the infringement, the labels wrote — it launders it. V6 is not a fresh start, the complaint said. It is "the fruit of the same poisoned tree."
Suno's Jack Brody told The Verge, when v6 launched, that it was "trained from the ground up, with a new set of data." That included "user data," he said, without offering further detail. Suno spokesperson Rachel Racusen later said v6 was trained on "content licensed from our partners" and "creations and preference signals" from users. She did not say whether that included audio users uploaded, or outputs based on it.
Sony and UMG are notable holdouts that have not signed licensing deals with Suno, unlike other major labels. The complaint separately alleges Suno used distillation, training v6 to replicate outputs of its earlier "teacher" models. Even a model "not directly trained" on the labels' recordings is "informed by, and benefits from," Suno's retained unauthorized copies, the filing said.