GEMA sues Suno AI for copyright infringement of protected songs
German music rights organization GEMA filed a lawsuit against Suno Inc. in Munich Regional Court on January 21, 2025, alleging that the AI music generator was trained on copyrighted works from GEMA's repertoire without authorization and produces outputs confusingly similar to protected songs including "Mambo No. 5," "Forever Young," and "Daddy Cool."
What happened
GEMA filed a lawsuit against Suno Inc. with the Munich Regional Court on 21 January 2025, alleging that the AI music generator used protected recordings from GEMA's repertoire to train its system without authorization or compensation.
GEMA documented that Suno's outputs are confusingly similar to original songs in melody, harmony and rhythm, including works by Lou Bega ('Mambo No. 5'), Alphaville ('Forever Young'), Frank Farian ('Daddy Cool'), Kristina Bach ('Atemlos') and Modern Talking ('Cheri Cheri Lady').
Reported impact
GEMA alleges that Suno Inc. has systematically used its members' works for training and is now commercially exploiting the outputs without providing financial compensation to the original creators.
The lawsuit highlights concerns that AI providers profit from copyrighted works while the generated content competes with human-created works, depriving original authors of their economic basis.
Index analysis
The case centers on whether Suno's use of copyrighted music in training data without permission or compensation constitutes copyright infringement, and whether the AI-generated outputs that closely mimic protected songs violate copyright law.
GEMA states that AI providers such as Suno lack transparency, fairness and respect for copyright, and that a legal framework is needed to guarantee authors an appropriate share of value created by AI providers.
Governance controls
GEMA stated it is seeking solutions in partnership with AI companies but emphasized that this requires adherence to basic principles of fair cooperation and acquisition of proper licenses for copyrighted works.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.