Suno Gets Hit With a Different Kind of Lawsuit—and It Might Be Harder to Defend

The copyright lawsuits were just the opening round. Now Suno's got a different problem on its hands—a group of musicians are suing over publicity rights, claiming the AI company literally encoded their identities into its model and then used their names without permission.

This is a shrewder move than the standard infringement cases. Instead of fighting over whether training data counts as fair use, this lawsuit zeroes in on something simpler: you can't package someone's identity and sell it. That's a violation of their right to control how their likeness and name get used—a legal protection that's been on the books for decades.

The distinction matters. Copyright battles are messy and technical. Publicity rights are more straightforward: did you use someone's identity to make money without asking? If yes, you owe them. It's the same principle that stops deepfake companies from cloning celebrities without consent.

For Suno, this is tougher ground to defend. Hard to argue you didn't "publicly use" someone's name when that's literally part of how the product works.

Read the full story at CMU → https://completemusicupdate.com/latest-suno-lawsuit-accuses-ai-company-of-violating-the-publicity-rights-of-musicians-rather-than-infringing-their-copyrights/