THE BIG STORY: Two weeks after the owners of Elvis Presley’s intellectual property sued Anthropic, they’re back with a new case against Suno — and this one is way more interesting.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Elvis Presley Enterprises accused Suno, the leading AI music firm, of stealing Presley’s likeness by allowing users to clone his “unmistakable and iconic” singing voice: “All of the humanity, history, despair, and triumph that constitutes Elvis’ identity was stolen and is stored on servers and harnessed by Suno to make massive amounts of money,” the lawsuit reads.
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That’s markedly different from the earlier Presley case against Anthropic and the many others filed against Suno by music firms, which all center on the use of copyrighted materials to train AI models. The new case invokes likeness rights — state-level protections designed to protect someone’s name, image and voice from commercial exploitation.
For more — about the new lawsuit, the ELVIS Act it’s citing and Suno’s potential counter-arguments — go read the full Billboard story here or watch me break it all down here.
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Other top stories this week…
— A lawsuit against HYBE claiming the chart-topping BTS smash “Swim” ripped off an earlier song was dropped by the accusers less than four months after it was filed.
— Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler got a new trial date in the long-running case claiming he “groomed” an underage girl in the ’70s and then admitted in a memoir that he “almost took a teen bride.”
— Robbie Williams defended Olivia Rodrigo after some fans claimed her holiday song “Take Me Home (4 Christmas) sounds like his track “Candy.” If only Stella Lefty had that kind of support…
— Dolly Parton’s estate dropped its case against Bryan Seaver, the late star’s nephew and head of security, whom it had accused of trying to extort money with threats of violence.
— Dua Lipa reached a settlement to end a copyright case over “Levitating,” fully resolving years of litigation over the megahit song.
— Days before the big new Elvis case was filed, Suno asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by Jason Isbell and other stars over similar name-and-likeness claims.
— How will the sweeping Democratic victories in the midterm elections impact the music industry? Here’s what it might mean for the Live Nation antitrust case, the NO FAKES Act, the StubHub CEO probe and more.
— JYP Entertainment, the Korean music giant behind K-pop band Stray Kids, sued an upstart DIY distributor for allegedly uploading a pirated recording of Han’s solo stuff.
— An appeals court ruled Garth Brooks’ sexual assault accuser can potentially stay anonymous, even after Brooks disclosed her name: “We are not persuaded that the proverbial cat is out of the bag here.”
— Mastodon filed its first response to a case brought by the estate of late guitarist Brent Hinds, arguing the band can honor his legacy without “rewriting” his legal agreements.
— A judge struggled with whether to release Lil Durk on bail following his acquittal on murder-for-hire charges but before a second racketeering trial: “It’s a question of psychology.”
— Nicki Minaj is somehow in coast-to-coast legal battles with her own lawyers, who claim she’s refused to pay them and are stymying their efforts to fire her as a client.
— A man who pretended to be a Sony Music exec to steal more than $1 million from event bookers was sentenced to six years in prison — two more than he got for doing almost the same scam years ago by name-dropping Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.
— A judge threw out copyright claims over Flo Milli’s 2023 hit “Never Lose Me” after ruling that the man bringing the lawsuit did not technically own a beat sampled in the track.
— Ye (Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign were sued over sampling yet again, this time over accusations that they stole a sample for their song “Vultures” from one of Ty’s longtime friends after overhearing it on a phone call.
— Sony Music Publishing was hit with a copyright case for allegedly posting an “iconic photograph” of Stevie Wonder to its Instagram page without a license.
