{
  "id": 16045086,
  "title": "Reservoir Sues Suno & Anthropic in Latest Lawsuits Over AI Music: ‘Meant to Replace the Artists’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/22/reservoir-sues-suno-anthropic-in-latest-lawsuits-over-ai-music-meant",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-22T12:11:54.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Billboard",
    "slug": "billboard",
    "url": "https://www.billboard.com/pro/reservoir-sues-suno-anthropic-over-ai-training/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Music company Reservoir has initiated legal action against AI music firms Suno and Anthropic, alleging the latter two have infringed on famous songs by artists like Madonna, Johnny Cash, and Joni Mitchell. According to Reservoir's lawsuit, filed on October 21, the AI companies allegedly stole these copyrighted songs to train their models, effectively replacing the artists they originated from. Reservoir's attorney, Richard Busch, states that both companies built their business models on copyright infringement, a scale unprecedented before. Suno allegedly made illicit copies of millions of songs, including Reservoir's works, to create a platform where users could generate complete songs from these illicit copies without compensating rights holders. The case accuses Suno and Anthropic of using some of the most iconic lyrics and melodies in music history, such as Madonna's \"Papa Don't Preach,\" Joni Mitchell's \"Big Yellow Taxi,\" and Johnny Cash's \"Ring of Fire.\" AI companies claim they have transformed these works into new forms, a process criticized by human authors as a form of fair use or outright theft. This lawsuit is part of a growing trend of legal battles involving AI music firms, with critics arguing that the use of existing works to train models infringes on artists' rights.",
  "summary": "The indie publisher says the AI labs stole songs by Madonna and Johnny Cash to train their models to spit out new ones.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}