OpenAI held liable for lyrics in ChatGPT by Munich court
A court in Munich has sided with GEMA, Germany’s collecting society for musical rights, determining that OpenAI owes licensing payments for the copyrighted lyrics embedded in its AI systems, ChatGPT among them. Judge Elke Schwager, who presided over the case, directed OpenAI to cover GEMA’s losses stemming from royalties never paid, along with associated legal costs and accrued interest — a judgment that, should it hold, could translate into a payout reaching several hundred thousand euros. At issue were lyrics penned by nine prominent German songwriters whom GEMA represents, making this one of the more consequential court findings so far on how AI systems built to generate text handle music that is legally protected.
GEMA initiated legal action on the grounds that OpenAI had incorporated protected lyrics without securing authorization, contending further that ChatGPT’s training data contained memorized copies of the songs. During the trial, GEMA’s representatives asserted that, given the right prompts, the chatbot would output substantial verbatim excerpts of the tracks in question. OpenAI pushed back on this characterization, maintaining that its models do not retain or duplicate exact snippets of training material but instead absorb underlying patterns to produce fresh text. The judges dismissed OpenAI’s argument that liability should fall on the people typing the prompts, ruling instead that the company operating the language model — not its users — bears responsibility for what the system outputs.
Court treats both memorization and generated text as copyright violations
Judges built their decision around two distinct moments in the process: first, the point at which the lyrics became embedded within the model’s internal parameters, and second, the moment those lyrics resurfaced in the chatbot’s replies. Both stages, the court concluded, constituted copyright infringement in their own right — storing the words inside the system was unlawful, and so was generating them back out again. The panel further determined that the wording appearing in ChatGPT’s answers originated from the language model’s own generative process rather than being merely echoed from whatever a user had typed.
Among the nine German songwriters named in GEMA’s complaint were Kristina Bach and Rolf Zuckowski, whose lyrics the organization said had been used without any licensing arrangement in place. Under the court’s order, OpenAI must cover the full scope of GEMA’s damages — unpaid royalties, legal expenses, and interest included. OpenAI responded by stating it does not agree with the outcome and is weighing its options for how to proceed, adding that the ruling touches only a narrow set of song lyrics and has no bearing on the millions of individuals, companies, and developers across Germany who rely on its products daily.
Case marks Europe’s first ruling of its kind
Observers have characterized this as the largest dispute of its kind so far seen in Europe, one with the potential to shape how the European Union approaches oversight of generative AI, especially where creative works are concerned. Kai Welp, GEMA’s general counsel, remarked that the decision resolves important legal uncertainties surrounding the intersection of emerging technology and European copyright rules, describing it as a landmark step toward ensuring authors and creators throughout Europe receive fair pay.
As one of the world’s biggest music rights bodies, GEMA speaks for upward of 95,000 composers, songwriters, and publishers within Germany, plus more than two million rights holders worldwide. Since 2024, the organization has made an AI licensing framework available, designed to let tech firms train their systems on its catalogue lawfully while making sure creators get compensated. That framework aligns with what the court ultimately awarded in this dispute, which turns on the principle that AI developers need permission and must pay when copyrighted lyrics are put to use.
OpenAI retains right to appeal amid related legal battles
Because OpenAI retains the option to appeal, the Munich verdict is not guaranteed to be the final word on the matter. Separately, GEMA has launched another lawsuit, this one against the American AI music generator SunoAI, accusing it of similarly training on GEMA’s repertoire without permission; that case is slated to reach a hearing early in the coming year. Taken together, the Munich decision fits into a wider pattern of legal fights over AI companies’ use of protected music, and for now stands as Europe’s most definitive court statement on the handling of song lyrics within generative AI systems.
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