Google is asking a federal court to dismiss a copyright lawsuit brought by independent musicians over its Lyria 3 music model, arguing that YouTube’s terms of service already gave it permission to use uploaded songs. The company says the plaintiffs granted YouTube and its affiliates a broad, royalty-free license that covers reproducing, distributing and preparing derivative works from content uploaded to the platform.
The dispute centers on a lawsuit filed in March by independent artists, songwriters and producers who alleged Google used millions of music clips and hundreds of thousands of hours of audio from YouTube to train Lyria 3 without payment or consent. Google has not publicly detailed the full training dataset for the model, but the artists say the company copied their work to build a competing AI product.
In its motion, Google avoids a fair use defense and instead leans on the contract language in YouTube’s terms. The filing argues that even if the plaintiffs’ allegations are accepted as true, the complaint fails because the artists already authorized the conduct at issue when they uploaded their music to the platform.
The case adds to a wider fight over whether platform licenses can be used to justify AI training. If the court accepts Google’s position, the ruling could have broad implications for creators who publish work on YouTube, especially as AI companies continue to test the boundaries of copyright and platform agreements.
Read Article: Ashwini Vaishnaw Orders New IRCTC Website by July 15 After Student Complaint
