The new lawsuits and the allegations
Suno is under legal pressure again. According to The Verge, a group of rights holders for Elvis Presley's music and the publisher of some of Eminem's biggest songs have sued the AI music company, alleging that it illegally generates music and lyrics imitating those artists. The lawsuits add to a series of already pending disputes against Suno.
In the Presley case, the rights holders' lawyers claim that Suno violated Tennessee's Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which makes it illegal for an AI company to clone a singer's voice. This is the legal crux of the action: not only the reproduction of songs, but the provision of tools capable of replicating an artist's vocal identity.
The similarity to the Isbell case and Suno's response
The two new lawsuits closely mirror the one filed in September by Jason Isbell and others, which according to The Verge accused Suno of creating imitations of the plaintiffs without directly invoking copyright infringement. The new front, particularly the one tied to Presley, instead shifts attention to likeness and voice rights, an area in which Tennessee law has specifically intervened.
In the briefs cited by the newspaper, lawyers for the Presley rights holders argue that Suno had 'mechanically encoded' into its system the identities, work, creativity and time of artists, in order to turn them into a constant stream of money. Later in the complaint, it is stated that Suno's race is aimed at making human creativity obsolete, by replicating without a license, in a few seconds, what takes years to learn and perfect. These are statements by one party, not established facts.
Suno rejects the allegations. Spokesperson Cat McCormack told The Verge that the company exists to help people create new and original music, not to exploit anyone's name or image, and that it prohibits any unauthorized use of artists' work. McCormack explained that the platform does not allow prompts containing the names and songs of specific artists and that it works with third-party providers to check uploaded audio files and lyrics, looking for possible abuse; the company says it is constantly working to strengthen these protections and add new safeguards for artists and users.
The context and open questions
The overall picture is one of expanding litigation. The newspaper notes that Suno is already the target of numerous lawsuits, including those filed by Sony, UMG, Isbell himself and Reservoir Media. The novelty of the two actions described lies in the fact that they involve heirs and rights holders of major artists and that they pair the copyright issue with the protection of voice and likeness, with the ELVIS Act as the central instrument in the Presley case.
However, several elements remain to be verified and are not clarified by the available material: the courts involved, the damages sought, the possible outcome of the lawsuits already filed and the strength of the technical defenses announced by Suno, such as prompt filters and the checking of uploaded files. It is also not known whether the new lawsuits have been consolidated or handled separately. At present, therefore, the allegations and the company's response are statements by the parties, not judicial decisions, and the actual impact on music-generation practices remains to be determined.
