{"id":927380,"date":"2026-08-15T14:19:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/15\/google-moves-to-dismiss-artists-ai-lawsuit-says-they-consented-to-the-use-of-their-recordings-when-uploading-to-youtube\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T14:19:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:19:56","slug":"google-moves-to-dismiss-artists-ai-lawsuit-says-they-consented-to-the-use-of-their-recordings-when-uploading-to-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/15\/google-moves-to-dismiss-artists-ai-lawsuit-says-they-consented-to-the-use-of-their-recordings-when-uploading-to-youtube\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Moves to Dismiss Artists\u2019 AI Lawsuit, Says They Consented \u2018To the Use of Their Recordings\u2019 When Uploading to YouTube"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"YouTube<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Adarsh Chauhan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Do YouTube\u2019s terms of service grant Google \u201ca broad license\u201d to train AI on uploaded music? The tech giant believes so, and it\u2019s doubling down on the position as it aggressively pushes to dismiss an artist-led copyright lawsuit. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

That class action suit set sail in March<\/a>\u00a0and counts as plaintiffs the same individuals (including members of Chicago-based bands Attack the Sound<\/a> and Directrix<\/a>) who are suing Udio as well as Suno for alleged infringement. (One plaintiff, singer-songwriter Sam Kogon<\/a>, is a party to the Google litigation but not the older cases.)<\/p>\n

Clocking in at a healthy 118 pages, the complaint also encompasses non-copyright claims (and corresponding proposed sub-classes); more on this in a moment. But at the top level, the plaintiffs maintain that Google used their releases to train AI models like Lyria<\/a> without authorization.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Google<\/strong>\u00a0is vehemently denying the allegations, including in a newly submitted dismissal motion<\/a> that itself spans 41 pages.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Overall, the filing\u2019s most interesting component concerns YouTube\u2019s terms \u2013 especially given the straightforward argument\u2019s implications for separate-but-similar actions.<\/p>\n

The way the defendant sees things, the fine print that the plaintiffs accepted when uploading their music \u201cgrants Google a broad license to use\u201d the relevant \u201ccontent in connection with Google\u2019s business.\u201d<\/p>\n

And according to Google, said license covers, among much else, AI training. Of course, if the court rules in favor of the YouTube parent here, it\u2019d be a major setback for the litigating artists.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the dismissal document aims to refute distinct arguments as well. First, some of the plaintiffs are allegedly seeking relief for works that were unregistered with the Copyright Office when the suit kicked off. And the Supreme Court\u2019s far-reaching Cox v. Sony <\/em>decision<\/a> is a key focus in Google\u2019s attempt to toss a contributory infringement claim.<\/p>\n

The action \u201ccontains no allegations that Google intentionally induced users to generate infringing songs, as necessary to establish contributory copyright infringement under recent Supreme Court authority,\u201d a related line reads.<\/p>\n

On the vicarious side, the plaintiffs\u2019 claim \u201cfails out of the gate for the same reasons as their contributory infringement claim,\u201d referring in part to the purported absence of \u201cany specific direct infringements,\u201d per Google.<\/p>\n

What about Google\/YouTube\u2019s alleged violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?<\/h4>\n

The DMCA is front and center in multiple AI lawsuits now. In this case, the plaintiffs are taking issue with the alleged removal of copyright management information from training data and the alleged circumvention of third-party platforms\u2019 access controls.<\/p>\n

At present, the debate about precisely what constitutes an access versus a copy control<\/a> is ongoing. In any event, the motion calls out the complaint\u2019s alleged lack of CMI specifics and criticizes the access control allegation as making \u201cno sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle would not need to circumvent any access measure, because Plaintiffs voluntarily gave Google access to the works when they chose to upload their content to YouTube,\u201d the text reads.<\/p>\n

Finally, Google is also pushing back against several state-law claims. But as mentioned, the terms argument is particularly important \u2013 including because DIY distributors are\u00a0compelling artists to grant expanded derivative-work permissions<\/a> when making their music available via platforms like Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Adarsh Chauhan Do YouTube\u2019s terms of service grant Google \u201ca broad license\u201d to train AI on uploaded music? The tech giant believes so, and it\u2019s doubling down on the position as it aggressively pushes to dismiss an artist-led copyright lawsuit. That class action suit set sail in March\u00a0and counts as plaintiffs the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":927381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[496,2150,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-google","category-moves","category-youtube-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}