Suno admitted in court that it pulled YouTube audio as training data using YT-DLP — and in the same filing argued it was all fair use

“Suno has now admitted in court that it pulled YouTube audio as training data using YT-DLP — and in the same filing it argues that was 'quintessential fair use'.”

Usable claims

• Per Suno's September 1, 2026 answer in UMG Recordings, Inc., Capitol Records, LLC, and Sony Music Entertainment v. Suno, Inc. (US District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 1:24-cv-11611-FDS, Dkt. 281), paragraph 49 states: 'Suno admits that audio data was obtained from YouTube for use as training data using YT-DLP.' Paragraph 45 states: 'Suno admits it obtained audio data from YouTube for use as training data.' Each admission is followed in the same paragraph by denials of legal conclusions and of the remaining allegations. The same filing states: 'Suno admits that over 12,000,000 users have generated music files using its product' (paragraph 12); that its model, 'a type of computer program known as a "neural network,"' 'was constructed by showing the program tens of millions of instances of different kinds of recordings gathered from publicly available sources'; and that 'users can subscribe to the Pro and Premier plans for monthly fees of $8 and $24, respectively.' Suno's first affirmative defense argues that 'to the extent there is copying of copyrightable expression, that copying constitutes fair use pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 107' via 'a back-end technological process, invisible to the public, in the service of creating an ultimately non-infringing new product' — 'This is quintessential fair use.' Its seventh defense argues any established infringement 'was innocent, allowing for the Court to reduce any award of statutory damages to an amount as low as $200 per work infringed. 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2).' Its twelfth and thirteenth defenses argue the labels' 'claims under 17 U.S.C. § 1201 are barred, in whole or in part, because one or more Plaintiffs lack standing under Article III of the United States Constitution', and because Plaintiffs are not 'person[s] injured' within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. § 1203(a).
• Per Music Business Worldwide (Murray Stassen, September 8, 2026), which reviewed the filing: the paragraph-49 admission answers a complaint paragraph alleging Suno used YT-DL and YT-DLP to 'circumvent YouTube's encryption and scrape copyrighted recordings from YouTube', and 'Suno's response names only YT-DLP'; Suno had told the labels in May 2025 that it had downloaded audio files from YouTube using such open-source tools, per Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV's order, and 'The September 1 answer restates that disclosure as a formal admission in Suno's own pleading'; the answer 'repeats at five further points' that Suno obtained audio data from YouTube. Saylor granted the labels leave to bring the stream-ripping claim on August 18 under the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, after Suno in October 2025 had asked the court to throw the claim out, its lawyers calling it 'a gambit to try to evade application of the fair use doctrine to Suno's technology development process'; the two standing defenses 'are limited to the circumvention claim, and do not touch the two copyright infringement claims the labels also bring.' Litigation stakes and timeline per MBW: the labels are seeking up to $150,000 per work across the 560 recordings in suit, after Saylor denied their bid to add 61,026 more without prejudice; Warner Music Group settled its case against Suno in November 2025 and struck a licensing deal, leaving UMG, Capitol, and Sony as plaintiffs; fact discovery closes September 30, with both sides expected to move for summary judgment on the fair use question; and Suno's August 2024 first answer had said its training data included 'essentially all music files of reasonable quality that are accessible on the open Internet', pleading 11 defenses with none about standing. Away from the litigation, per MBW: on August 10 Suno said it would 'introduce a new generation of Suno models, developed in partnership with the music industry', with 'all prior models will be retired' when those launch; Suno signed a licensing deal with BMG on August 12; starting September 3 it caps monthly downloads at 20 for Pro subscribers, 60 for Premier, and 7 in total for free users; and its new Terms of Service, published August 10, prohibit obtaining an output by any means other than its own download channel, giving 'recording or stream ripping' as examples.