UMG Recordings is asking Judge Saylor for leave to file a (First) Amended Complaint to add new allegations against Suno for allegedly “stream ripping” music files from YouTube videos, circumventing their encryption. The Complaint cited a report by Billboard “that revealed the existence of private datasets demonstrating how both Suno and Udio scraped music from the internet on a massive scale.”
UMG Recordings alleges that stream ripping violates the DMCA anti-circumvention provision.
Suno’s unauthorized extraction, copying, and storage of Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Recordings from YouTube for use in its training data was accomplished by Suno’s unlawful
Proposed amended complaint
circumvention of YouTube’s rolling cipher and any other technological measures YouTube may have implemented to prevent the downloading and copying of licensed content.
Suno’s actions constitute a breach of the Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provisions, which state, among other things, that “[n]o person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.” 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)(A).
Redlined Proposed Amended Complaint
UMG Recordings argues that Suno stonewalled discovery of this information by raising blanket objections to UMG’s interrogatories
Expect Judge Saylor to grant this motion and allow the Amended Complaint. Also probably should expect something similar in UMG Recordings lawsuit against Uncharted Labs d/b/a Udio.
DOWNLOAD PROPOSED AMENDED COMPLAINT (REDLINED VERSION)
2 responses to “UMG Recordings asks to amend complaint v. Suno to add DMCA anti-circumvention claim: Suno allegedly “stream ripped” music from YouTube videos, bypassing encryption”
Most standard YouTube videos (even on artist or Vevo channels) are not DRM-encrypted. They rely on HTTPS + YouTube’s backend controls (like expiring URLs, obfuscation) so I’m not sure what encryption there is for Suno to have circumvented.
DMCA
17 U.S.C. §1201(a)(2):
“No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—
(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent such a technological measure; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing such a technological measure.”
————–
Is Suno “primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure”?