All articles tagged with #rights of publicity
Jason Isbell and other artists have filed a class-action lawsuit against AI music platform Suno, alleging it violates their rights of publicity by using their names to generate imitative music. This legal action coincides with a broader wave of copyright lawsuits from global rights organizations, including SOCAN in Canada, challenging Suno's use of protected works without consent.
Jason Isbell, David Lowery, and other artists filed a class-action lawsuit against AI music platform Suno, alleging the service encodes musicians' identities into its model. The suit claims Suno’s name-blocking filters are easily bypassed, allowing users to generate music mimicking specific artists. Suno denies the claims, stating its goal is to create original music, not imitate existing artists.
Dua Lipa filed a California lawsuit accusing Samsung of using a photo of her on TV packaging without permission or compensation, asserting ownership of the image from a 2024 ACL performance and seeking at least $15 million in damages plus injunctive relief and legal costs under copyright, publicity rights, and trademark laws.
Major labels are in talks with Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music to remove recordings with AI-generated vocals imitating popular artists, citing violations of rights of publicity rather than copyright. Unlike the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, this arrangement appears to be voluntary. The use of soundalike vocals for creative purposes may be protected as free speech, and citing rights of publicity can be more complicated than copyright because they are matters of state law in the US, backed by limited legal precedent. Some artists have embraced the technology, while some executives have raised concerns that AI soundalikes could result in consumer confusion.