Jason Isbell’s Suno lawsuit takes aim beyond AI copyright

Musician Jason Isbell is leading a group of artists suing AI music generator Suno, alleging the company has misappropriated and exploited their identities. The group, which also includes Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery, Texas blues singer-songwriter Guy Forsyth, and saxophonist Eduardo Calle, has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. The artists say Suno lets users generate music that sounds like an artist’s work, effectively stealing individual styles. It’s an unusual suit in that it focuses on identity rather than copyright. And it approaches that argument in an unusual fashion, opening not with the legalese or direct accusations typically found in a court filing, but with an essay on the Borg, one of the major villains in Star Trek: The Next Generation. “The Borg are one of science fiction’s most terrifying villains, representing the ultimate violation of individual identity and autonomy,” it reads. “Autonomy is consumed and repurposed in the service of a cold machine intelligence that feels nothing for what it has taken.” The case against the “Borg Collective” The filing eventually gets to the heart of its argument, alleging that Suno lets …