JAKARTA - The global music industry is again shaken by disputes related to copyright and artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence (AI). Sony Music Entertainment officially filed a new lawsuit against the AI-based music generator platform, Udio.
Sony accused the startup of illegally copying more than 30,000 songs by musicians under their wings, including Beyoncé, Harry Styles, and rock and roll legend Elvis Presley, to train their AI models.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday. This legal step is a continuation of the legal action previously taken by Sony with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group since June 2024.
In the latest lawsuit, Sony revealed trial facts showing the discovery of 30,117 copyrighted song tracks in Udio's training data set.
"The basic principles of copyright law stipulate that duplication of protected sound recordings for the purpose of developing commercial AI products such as Udio's requires permission from the rights holder," Sony said in its lawsuit, quoted by Variety, Thursday, July 23.
Sony added that if the practice is left without binding legal rules, AI products risk eroding the value of the artwork that is its main raw material. It is considered a potential replacement, rather than supporting true human creativity.
On the other hand, Udio previously shrugged and claimed that the process of training their AI model against copyrighted songs on YouTube falls under the category of fair use. Udio reasoned that the technical process aimed to create new products that do not infringe copyright.
However, Sony denied the claim. The giant music label assessed that Udio should be able to take the official licensing route, as has begun to be done by other industry competitors.
Sony is now seeking damages of at least 150,000 US dollars or around Rp2.4 billion for each work that is violated, as well as urging the court to prohibit Udio from using their song catalog in the future.
"At its core, this case is about ensuring that copyright continues to provide incentives for human discovery and imagination, as it has for centuries. Achieving this goal does not have to dwarf technological innovation, but requires Udio to comply with copyright law and respect creators," Sony concluded.
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