McKool Smith AI Litigation Tracker: Copyright Battles Over OpenAI, Suno, and Stability AI Head Toward Summary Judgment

Law firm McKool Smith's AI Litigation Tracker — prepared by principal Avery Williams — offers a detailed review of major copyright infringement cases involving generative AI in media and entertainment. In the SDNY multi-district litigation, parties have filed summary judgment motions centering on fair use, with the key dispute being whether AI training on books and news constitutes market substitution. Class plaintiffs allege OpenAI's models can displace human-made works, while OpenAI and Microsoft argue AI-generated content is non-infringing and that adopting a market-harm theory would weaponize copyright against technological competition. The tracker also notes filings from The New York Times, Daily News, and Ziff Davis plaintiffs, with Microsoft and OpenAI filing answers to their amended complaints.

Other cases covered include UMG Recordings v. Suno — where Suno has filed its answer to the amended complaint in a dispute over music generation — and ongoing image-generation litigation involving Stability AI. The tracker reflects a rapidly advancing litigation landscape that could set binding precedent on how copyright law applies to AI training data across text, music, and visual media.