Udio lawsuit

Photo Credit: Igor Omilaev

Let the amended copyright complaints continue: The major labels have updated their infringement suit against Uncharted Labs, the company behind AI music generator Udio.

The RIAA-corralled plaintiffs just recently fired off their proposed amended complaint against Udio, about one week after unveiling a retooled action against Suno. As we reported then – and on the heels of Anthropic’s massive book-piracy settlement – the revamped suit explored at length the steps Suno allegedly took to obtain music for training purposes.

Chief among these alleged steps: Purportedly bypassing YouTube’s “rolling cipher” anti-piracy technology to “stream rip” and download protected audio from videos.

Also as broken down by DMN, a separate Suno infringement action, led this time by country artist Tony Justice, likewise embraced the stream-ripping argument in an amended filing. Technically, the RIAA’s expanded Suno suit surfaced on the 19th versus the 22nd for Justice’s complaint, which once again referenced the labels’ case.

Is that why the RIAA’s proposed amended action against Udio is riddled with redactions? It seems like a possibility – though we don’t have a concrete answer to the question.

(Actually, all the Suno case’s amended complaint documents and attachments were unavailable through the docket at the time of this writing; a few of the attachments were labeled “Impounded” as well.)

What we do know, however, is that the amended Udio suit’s public version contains a grand total of zero “rolling cipher” references and a dramatically reduced number of “YouTube” mentions.

Furthermore, as the actions feature similar arguments and formatting, one won’t have too hard a time making redacted-text inferences by comparing the documents if so inclined.

In any event, the gist of the more recent updates appears to be the same as those in the Suno showdown.

The fresher text also references International Confederation of Music Publishers-provided evidence of “the illegal scraping of copyrighted sound recordings from YouTube” and the AI company defendant’s alleged “breach of the Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provisions.”

As for where the case goes from here, it probably doesn’t need saying that in the near term, the lengthier amended complaint isn’t exactly expediting the process. (Of course, whether it fuels a settlement – reports in June pointed to licensing discussions between the majors and Suno as well as Udio – remains to be seen.)

On Friday, the court signed off on a joint deadline-extension request from the majors and Udio, thereby nixing a previously scheduled October 22nd status conference. Now, the same conference won’t take place until December 12th, the relevant order shows.