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| Eminem performs at the Concert for Valor in Washington on Nov. 11, 2014. Music publishers controlling rights to 269 of his compositions have sued AI company Suno, alleging copyright infringement. (EJ Hersom/DoD News via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; cropped) |
Eight Mile Style LLC and Martin Affiliated LLC filed the lawsuit Friday in San Francisco against Suno Inc., the company behind an AI music generator that creates songs from text prompts.
The publishers accuse Suno of copying 269 Eminem compositions, including "Lose Yourself," "Stan," "Without Me," "Till I Collapse" and "The Real Slim Shady," to train its technology without obtaining a license.
But the 36-page complaint goes further than allegations about what Suno used to train its software. It identifies specific songs allegedly generated by the platform that reproduce existing Eminem lyrics.
One example, a Suno track titled "Lose Yourself By Eminem," is compared line by line with the original in the court filing. The publishers allege that the generated version reproduces the song's introduction, first verse and chorus with only minor differences in wording and punctuation.
Other examples cited in the lawsuit involve "Till I Collapse," "The Real Slim Shady" and "Houdini."
The publishers are seeking up to $40.35 million in statutory copyright damages, calculated at $150,000 for each of the 269 compositions. They also seek separate damages for alleged violations involving access controls and the removal of copyright ownership information.
Eminem, whose legal name is Marshall Mathers, is not personally a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Suno disputes unauthorized use of artists' work.
In a statement provided to news outlets, company spokesperson Cat McCormack said Suno is designed to help people create original music and prohibits unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
The company says it blocks prompts naming specific artists or songs, uses third-party services to screen uploaded audio and lyrics, and continues to strengthen its safeguards.
The publishers challenge the effectiveness of those restrictions.
Their complaint describes online tools and tutorials that allegedly help users work around artist-name restrictions by substituting detailed descriptions of a performer's sound. It also cites examples of users requesting songs associated with Eminem through altered spellings and other prompts.
The lawsuit accuses Suno of using automated scraping tools to obtain copyrighted material from streaming and other online services, including methods the publishers say circumvented technological protections.
It further alleges that the company's data-processing methods stripped identifying information from copyrighted works, including songwriter names and publisher details.
Those allegations form three separate claims: direct copyright infringement, circumvention of technological protection measures and removal or alteration of copyright management information.
The publishers want a court to prohibit further infringement, order the surrender or destruction of unauthorized copies and require an accounting of the material Suno used to train its systems. The requested destruction would extend to copies allegedly retained in training datasets and other technical infrastructure.
The case raises two related questions: whether an AI company can legally use copyrighted music to train a commercial system without permission, and whether the songs it generates infringe the originals.
It arrives amid a broader legal fight between music rights holders and AI developers. Suno is already facing copyright challenges from other recording and publishing companies.
Eight Mile Style has also pursued copyright litigation involving Eminem's music against other technology companies, including Meta.
