Poseidon Wave Media sues Black Forest Labs, alleging FLUX was trained on The American Dollar's recordings

The amended complaint

Poseidon Wave Media LLC v. Black Forest Labs Inc., No. 1:26-cv-06737 (E.D.N.Y.), was filed October 20, 2026. The operative pleading is the amended complaint, ECF No. 5, filed October 22, 2026. It demands a jury and lists Richard M. Garbarini of Garbarini Fitzgerald P.C. in New York, New York as counsel. The exhibits it cites, including the registrations (Exhibit 1) and the members' assignment to Poseidon (Exhibit 2), are not on the public docket.

The parties and the works

The amended complaint describes Poseidon as a Wyoming limited liability company based in Flushing, New York, whose two members formed the band The American Dollar in 2005. It alleges Poseidon owns, by assignment, 236 instrumental sound recordings and compositions covered by 164 U.S. copyright registrations (the Copyrighted Tracks), and that the two members assigned to Poseidon all of their rights in the tracks and in the trade secret methods and processes used to create them. It alleges, on information and belief, that Black Forest Labs Inc. (BFL) is a Delaware corporation based in San Francisco, California, and describes it as the U.S. arm of a German parent company in Freiburg, Germany. It alleges that licensing revenue from the tracks has fallen nearly 80% since BFL launched FLUX.

Copyright Office records for two tracks the amended complaint discusses, Signaling Through The Flames (SR0000708500) and Age of Wonder (SR0000713231), list the band's two members as authors and Yesh Music LLC as claimant by written agreement, with registration dates of October 5, 2012. The Office's recorded documents include an assignment from Charming Beats LLC to Poseidon Wave Media LLC covering A Memory Stream and 159 other titles, including both of those tracks, executed March 26, 2024 and recorded August 5, 2024 (V15027D407).

Exhibit 1 to the amended and second amended complaints in an earlier Poseidon case in the same court, No. 1:26-cv-02835 (E.D.N.Y.), attaches two copyright assignments that list both tracks among the works: one from Yesh Music LLC to Charming Beats LLC, signed August 30, 2021, and one from Charming Beats LLC to Poseidon Wave Media LLC, signed March 26, 2024.

What it alleges

The amended complaint alleges, on information and belief, that BFL acquired many of the Copyrighted Tracks by stream ripping them from websites such as YouTube and Spotify, and alleges that BFL used a tool such as YT-DLP to circumvent YouTube's rolling cipher encryption. It alleges that BFL ingested and reverse engineered the tracks to train its FLUX platform, and that its FLUX.3 model, released in early access July 23, 2026, generates videos with audio. It alleges that one of Poseidon's two members ran 34 FLUX.3 queries: 30 asking for a video with a song that sounds like a named Copyrighted Track by the band The American Dollar, three control queries naming songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Frank Sinatra, and one gibberish query. It alleges that each output closely resembled the targeted song, and sets out comparisons for tracks including Signaling Through The Flames and Age of Wonder. The amended complaint says Poseidon is not presently alleging that the outputs themselves infringe the tracks, unless discovery shows they recapture portions of them, and offers the outputs as evidence that BFL copied the tracks and trained on them. It also alleges that, despite multiple requests from Poseidon and its counsel, BFL has not produced model documentation that BFL claimed it would "produce upon request."

The amended complaint pleads four counts. The first, headed "Copyright Infringement," alleges that BFL knowingly reproduced the Copyrighted Tracks in violation of 17 U.S.C. 106(1), alleges, on information and belief, that BFL used the reproductions to train its generative AI model, and alleges that each act of infringement was willful. The second, headed "Violation of the Uniform Trade Secret Act" and "N.Y. CLS Labor Law § 201-e," alleges that BFL acquired the tracks through improper means and used its FLUX platform to create new music files based on Poseidon's confidential and proprietary methods and processes. The third, headed "Trade Secret Violation" and "Protect Trade Secret Act 18 U.S.C. § 1836," alleges that BFL acquired those methods and processes by reverse engineering tracks it obtained by impermissible means. The fourth, headed "Violations of the DMCA" and "17 U.S.C. §§ 1201 et seq.," alleges that BFL circumvented technological measures implemented by YouTube, Spotify, and others, in violation of 17 U.S.C. 1201(a).

Relief sought

The prayer asks for a declaration of willful infringement, statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. 504(c) up to $150,000 per work infringed or actual damages and profits under 504(b), attorney's fees and costs under 17 U.S.C. 505, actual loss, unjust enrichment, or a reasonable royalty with fees under each trade secret claim, statutory damages for each 17 U.S.C. 1201 violation, and interest.

An earlier suit against Suno

Poseidon earlier sued Suno, Inc. in Poseidon Wave Media LLC v. Suno, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-03921 (S.D.N.Y.), filed May 12, 2026, alleging that Suno copied 236 of the band's recordings and compositions to train its generative AI music service, and filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of that case with prejudice on August 3, 2026 (ECF No. 19).