Germany - GEMA v. Suno, judgment scheduled 31 July 2026

Claimants: GEMA

Defendant: Suno Inc

The claimant alleges copyright infringement in connection with an AI-based music generator operated by the defendant.

It is undisputed that the defendant’s model was trained using six well-known musical works. For this purpose, the defendant used stream-ripping techniques to extract content from YouTube and circumvent technical protection measures (“rolling cipher”).

To generate the disputed outputs, the claimant entered prompts consisting of the original song lyrics, the title of the work and a desired musical style. No specifications were given regarding melody, harmony, rhythm or arrangement.

The claimant argues that the outputs show a strong similarity to the original works and therefore demonstrate that the works were “memorised” in the model.

Claimant’s claim

The claimant argues that the outputs of the music generator constitute copyright infringement and that unlawful reproductions already take place within the underlying AI model. According to the claimant, the similarity of the outputs to the original works shows that the works have been “memorised” by the model. Furthermore, the output of the generated content constitutes additional independent infringements. The alleged infringements concern both Germany and the United States.

Defendant’s defence

The defendant argues that the musical works at issue are allegedly not protected by copyright and are not recognizable in the outputs. The training data are neither contained in nor stored within the model; rather, the model only represents mathematical patterns and relationships derived from the training data. The outputs are primarily based on the claimant’s prompts and therefore cannot be attributed to the defendant. In addition, the training is justified under US law by the doctrine of “fair use”, and the court lacks jurisdiction to assess this. To the extent that German law applies, the defendant submits that there is no copyright-relevant act of use or that any such use is justified by statutory exceptions, in particular for text and data mining.

Court’s Judgment

The judgment was delivered on 31 July 2026. Munich Regional Court I largely ruled in GEMA’s favour in its case against Suno. The court found that storing protected songs in the model infringes the reproduction right, and that giving those songs to users through outputs infringes the right of making them available to the public. It also said Suno used the works in training, including by downloading them through stream-ripping. Suno must stop using the works without consent and must provide information and pay damages. The ruling is seen as an important European decision on licensing for AI music training, but the judgment is not yet final.