Suno has asked a federal court to dismiss a class-action lawsuit brought by Americana singer Jason Isbell and three other musicians, arguing that using artists’ names to describe a musical style is not unlawful. The company made the case in its first response to the complaint on Tuesday.
Isbell, David Lowery, Guy Forsyth and Eduardo Calle filed suit in August. They allege that Suno violates state publicity laws by exploiting artists’ identities when users ask the service to create music resembling their work.
Suno’s filing says that artists’ names are commonly used as shorthand for musical styles and compares prompts for an AI tool to musicians asking human producers to emulate another performer’s sound. The company also argues that the First Amendment protects this use and that the law does not grant ownership over an artistic style.
The lawsuit focuses on identity rather than copyright, an issue at the center of other legal disputes involving Suno. The plaintiffs allege the service retains artists’ “voiceprints” and that users can access them through prompts that avoid naming an artist directly, including references to their tone and phrasing or altered spellings of their names. Suno denied those claims.
The plaintiffs’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The court filing argues that asking for a track with “a Jason Isbell vibe” is no different from a musician making the same request to a producer, provided it does not infringe copyright or create confusion about who performed the song.
Sources: Variety.