The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence music platform Suno, alleging the service infringed at least 150 songs in its repertoire. The legal claim asks a court to require Suno to comply with copyright law, stop making infringing outputs available, and respect the rights of music creators and publishers when their works are used.
SOCAN has submitted a subset of 150 AI outputs generated by Suno that it says largely or fully infringe material from its member rightsholders, dating back to Suno’s entry into the Canadian market in 2023.
“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,” said Andrea Kokonis, chief legal officer and general counsel of SOCAN. “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.”
Along with the lawsuit, SOCAN has published a website showing a number of Suno outputs side by side with the songs they are alleged to infringe. Examples include:
- Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway”
- Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi”
- Alexisonfire’s “Passing Out In America”
“Creators were never asked, never informed, and never given the chance to say no,” the site states.
Legal goals and industry response#
Kokonis said the lawsuit aims to reinforce existing copyright protection and show that laws covering songwriters, composers, and music publishers apply equally in the AI era. She added that because Suno’s outputs compete directly with music created by human artists, fair compensation for songwriters is important.
“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,” said Jennifer Brown, CEO of SOCAN. “Innovation can’t come at the expense of human creativity. The future of music must belong to the people who make it.”
SOCAN has previously campaigned against unlicensed AI music, with support from artists including Sarah McLachlan and Mac DeMarco, and has spoken at Canada’s House of Commons about defending copyrighted human material. The organization has also partnered with Musical AI as a technology partner to help identify AI-generated outputs and attribute credit to songwriters and composers when their work is used by AI.
“We do want the message to be clear, songwriters and composers are not afraid of AI,” Kokonis said. “In fact, music creators are often early adopters of any new technology. In the case of songwriters and composers, many are already using AI as a creative tool and exploring its possibilities, but they need to be paid when their songs are used.”
Other legal actions against Suno#
Suno faces legal claims from multiple labels and companies in other markets. Recent actions include:
- On Monday (Aug. 31), Mexican music label and publisher Gerencia 360 Music sued Suno for allegedly using songs from its database to create AI-generated tracks.
- On Tuesday (Sept. 1), a group of artists led by singer-songwriter Jason Isbell filed suit against Suno.
- American publishing company Round Hill Music is seeking up to $1 billion in damages from Suno and Anthropic in a separate lawsuit filed last week on similar claims.
- Universal and Sony were granted permission to add allegations of stream ripping to their existing lawsuit against Suno.
The Canadian lawsuit follows legal action from labels in the United States and from SOCAN’s sister societies overseas. In late 2025, Suno signed a licensing deal with Warner Music Group (WMG) after initially being sued by the label in late 2024 as part of a $500 million joint copyright lawsuit with Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony, who are still battling Suno in court. Last month, a German court ruled in favour of rights society GEMA, which sued Suno for directly infringing the copyrights of recorded material within its database, including “Rasputin” by Boney M.
