News
A company re-sued over using non-commercial music data for commercial AI training. Checkpoints for creators who handle CC material or datasets (NVIDIA; not a judgment)
Jamendo refiled against NVIDIA. The earlier case had a 9 Oct 2026 voluntary-dismissal notice; the new complaint is 12 Oct (N.D. Cal. 5:26-cv-11754). It alleges commercial training of Fugatto and Audio Flamingo on the non-commercial MTG-Jamendo set. Not a judgment. Refile reason undisclosed.
What happened
Independent licensing firm S.A. Jamendo refiled against NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Docket Nexus (secondary) records a 9 October 2026 notice of voluntary dismissal in the earlier case 5:26-cv-06206, and notes termination is not yet confirmed. The new complaint is dated 12 October 2026, case no. 5:26-cv-11754. This is not a judgment. The new complaint does not state why the case was refiled.
What changed
The core allegation is unchanged: that NVIDIA used the MTG-Jamendo dataset — a research release of tracks and tags limited to non-commercial use — to train commercial generative-AI systems Fugatto (generative audio) and Audio Flamingo (audio understanding and dialogue). The caption claims copyright infringement, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition. Inside are two copyright counts, two contract counts (the CC license and website terms), unjust enrichment, and California unfair competition. The complaint quotes GitHub as saying “the metadata is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0,” and elsewhere cites “CC BY-NC 4.0.” It also quotes a GitHub notice that the set is solely for non-commercial research and academic use.
Whose work this affects
This hits whether training use is allowed. Creators who feed CC material or research datasets into their own or a vendor’s commercial model, and those who ship game or YouTube BGM from such models, need a per-job check that the README’s non-commercial line does not bar commercial training. The complaint says Jamendo sent invoices on or around 29 September 2025 and NVIDIA denied any contractual relationship — allegations, not findings. The U.S. case against Suno ended with a voluntary dismissal on 13 August 2026. Parent Winamp Group said on 2 September 2026 it planned to refile against Suno shortly; a new Suno docket number is not confirmed here. The filing does not by itself mean NVIDIA outputs cannot be used. Not legal advice.
Do this today
Save the license line and any “non-commercial / research only” notice from each research dataset you use, and note in one line whether you have a commercial-training permission if you train or commission training on it.
Sources
Primary: new complaint PDF, N.D. Cal. 5:26-cv-11754, filed 12 October 2026. Secondary: Docket Nexus on the 9 October dismissal of 5:26-cv-06206. Suno case end: 13 August voluntary-dismissal PDF. Winamp Group’s 2 September update via FinanzNachrichten. Clickable URLs follow.
Source: U.S. District Court, N.D. Cal.