Canada's music rights organization SOCAN has filed a lawsuit against AI music generation platform Suno, claiming the company unlawfully copied at least 150 songs belonging to its member rights holders. The organization is asking the court to require Suno to stop making infringing outputs available and to comply with copyright law.
According to a report by Billboard, SOCAN has put forward a subset of 150 AI-generated outputs that largely or fully reproduce material from its members, dating back to Suno's entry into the Canadian market in 2023. Those outputs include songs closely mirroring major hits such as Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway," Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi," and post-hardcore band Alexisonfire's "Passing Out In America."
"Suno launched its service in Canada [in December 2023] without having contacted us, without seeking consent from SOCAN, and any discussions we've had after that launch have not proved fruitful," Andrea Kokonis, chief legal officer and general counsel of SOCAN, told Billboard Canada. "We want to ensure that our members are paid when their songs are used, and we do want to send a clear signal to AI services that there are consequences when they use music without permission."
Alongside the lawsuit, SOCAN launched a dedicated website that places Suno's AI-generated outputs side by side with the songs they are alleged to infringe upon. The site carries the message: "Creators were never asked, never informed, and never given the chance to say no."
SOCAN chief executive Jennifer Brown framed the legal action in broader terms. "SOCAN has a responsibility to act when the rights of music creators and publishers are put at risk. The evidence shows that the Suno platform has generated and streamed outputs that copy works in our repertoire, and that cannot go unchallenged," Brown said. "Innovation can't come at the expense of human creativity. The future of music must belong to the people who make it."
Kokonis said the lawsuit is meant to reinforce existing copyright protections, arguing that the laws shielding songwriters, composers, and music publishers apply in the AI era just as they did before. She also pointed to the direct competition between AI-generated music and music created by human artists as a reason fair compensation matters.
SOCAN has been active on this front for some time. The organization led a nationwide campaign against unlicensed AI music that drew support from artists including Sarah McLachlan and Mac DeMarco. It has also appeared before Canada's House of Commons to argue for the protection of copyrighted human-created material.
