Udio has filed a formal answer in the United States copyright suit brought by Sony Music, denying the label’s claims over AI training data and stream-ripping. The filing outlines existing licensing agreements and a fair use defense as the case moves forward.
Sony Music filed the complaint in late July. Udio’s answer notes that the platform already has licensing pacts with several rightsholders and industry groups.
- Universal Music
- Warner Music
- Merlin
- Kobalt
- Believe
- National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA)
Sony Music is not among those partners. The current action involves more allegedly infringed works than the first Sony Music case against Udio, and the plaintiffs are seeking damages for alleged training-related infringement, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and other claims. Other AI developers, including Anthropic, are facing similar copyright allegations from rightsholders.
Training data and fair use defense#
In its response, Udio again acknowledged obtaining ‘audio data from YouTube for use as training data’ and acquiring a portion ‘of its training data by utilizing’ the stream-ripper YT-DLP. The company’s willingness to confirm the stream-ripping is notable because similar claims are active in other suits, where decisions may influence one another.
Under the DMCA, bypassing ‘copy’ controls may be treated differently from bypassing ‘access’ controls. Courts have not settled which category applies to YouTube’s anti-circumvention measures, and AI developers argue that ‘copy’ is the correct description.
Udio also invoked the fair use defense, stating that its ‘AI tool uses a back-end technological process, invisible to the public, in the service of creating an ultimately non-infringing new product.’ The company called this process ‘quintessential fair use’ and continues to allege ‘copyright misuse’ tied to what it describes as Sony Music’s ‘anticompetitive activities.’
The answer includes multiple affirmative defenses, including that Sony Music’s ‘remedies are barred at least in part by the applicable statutes of limitations.’
Procedural status#
The first Sony Music v. Udio case is now more than 26 months old. The court last week scheduled a status conference for late October. A faster schedule in the second case is possible because of the first case’s sweeping discovery, but the broad nature of the defenses suggests a trial is not imminent.
Udio is also licensing patents from Universal Music and preparing to launch a rightsholder-supported product.
