Hagens Berman Joins AI Music Copyright Fight Against Suno and Udio

Hagens Berman, the law firm that secured a $260 billion settlement against the tobacco industry in 1998, has entered the copyright battle over AI music generation. The firm is partnering with Delgado Entertainment Law to represent independent artists who allege that Suno and Udio copied their recordings without consent to train AI models.

Stream-Ripping Allegations at the Center

The class action stems from lawsuits filed in June 2025 by country musician Tony Justice and his label, 5th Wheel Records. Justice, a full-time truck driver whose song "Last of the Cowboys" has been streamed more than 8 million times on major platforms, filed separate complaints against Suno in Massachusetts and Udio in New York. The suits now name Anthony Justice, 5th Wheel Records and My Heartland Publishing as plaintiffs, representing independent artists who released music on streaming services since 2021.

At the core of the complaints is stream-ripping, a method of downloading audio from platforms like YouTube and Spotify by circumventing technological protections. The plaintiffs allege that Suno and Udio used this technique to copy tens of millions of recordings, the majority owned by independent artists, and then incorporated those compositions into training data for AI models that generate music competing directly in the same marketplace as the originals.

The stream-ripping allegations have gained legal traction. On May 21, a federal court hearing the Udio case denied part of the company's motion to dismiss, upholding claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A separate court has yet to rule on Suno's motion to dismiss. Suno did not deny the practice but argued it is not illegal under the DMCA. The major labels, who expanded their own parallel lawsuit in September 2025 to include stream-ripping allegations, pushed back sharply in October 2025, arguing in a memo that "the violation lies in the circumvention, not the reason for it."

Major Labels Split on Strategy

Suno and Udio are now contending with at least 12 lawsuits. The first opened in June 2024 when the RIAA joined forces with the three major labels to sue them for copyright infringement, citing "copyright infringement involving unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a massive scale."

Since then, the three major labels have pursued divergent strategies. Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have both shifted from litigation to licensing deals with at least one of the AI firms. UMG settled with Udio in October 2025 but remains in active litigation with Suno, while Warner settled with Udio a month later before becoming the first major to reach a deal with Suno as well. Sony Music remains in active litigation against both companies.

Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman, said in a statement that "Independent artists and producers represent the heart and soul of the music industry, and in the landscape of AI, they stand to lose the most. We believe that Udio and Suno have blatantly stolen works from millions of independent artists and have violated the terms of online platforms in order to do so." An estimated $4.6 billion in annual artist revenue could be lost to AI-generated music by 2028, according to a recent economic study conducted by CISAC and PMP Strategy with participation from Deezer.