Magistrate Judge Levenson issued an electronic order in the UMG Recordings v. Suno suit: “ELECTRONIC ORDER entered GRANTING in part and DENYING in part the discovery requests as set forth in 153 Letter/request (non-motion):
The first part deals with identifying the documents for which UMG is asserting privilege related to UMG’s decision to bring the lawsuit or the decision :whether to enter into a go-forward licensing agreement with Defendant, and which occurred between March and June of 2024″: “The court grants additional discovery such that Plaintiffs shall add to their privilege logs otherwise responsive documents that are withheld as privileged, that pertain to either (i) the decision to bring this action against Defendant or (ii) the decision regarding whether to enter into a go-forward licensing agreement with Defendant, and which occurred between March and June of 2024.” The latter forward licensing agreement between UMG and Suno apparently must be mentioned in Suno’s letter (which is not available on the docket, item 153). It’s been widely reported by WSJ and others that UMG and Suno were engaged in settlement negotiations.
The second part of the Judge’s order deals with any licensing deals UMG plans on relying on in attacking fair use under Factor 4: “Plaintiffs and Defendant shall confer and by October 24, 2025, shall agree on the timing of disclosures as to whether Plaintiffs intend to rely on particular licensing agreements to rebut Factor Four of Defendants fair use defense. Should Plaintiffs propose to rely on any such licensing agreements, Plaintiffs shall produce those agreements and any communications with the corresponding third parties regarding those agreements, upon a schedule agreed upon by the parties.”