Description: A Munich regional court ruled that ChatGPT reportedly reproduced protected German song lyrics and that OpenAI's models were trained on copyrighted texts, including works by musician Herbert Grönemeyer, without authorization. The court reportedly found both memorization of nine songs and lyric output to infringe exploitation rights. OpenAI disputes the ruling and may appeal. Damages were ordered, with implications for AI training on copyrighted works.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: OpenAI , OpenAI models and ChatGPT developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Songwriters , publishers , Musicians , Herbert Grönemeyer , German songwriters , German publishers , German musicians , German artists , GEMA and artists.
Alleged implicated AI systems: OpenAI models and ChatGPT
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1278
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-11-11
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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MUNICH, Nov 11 (Reuters) - OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT violated German copyright laws by reproducing lyrics from songs by best-selling musician Herbert Groenemeyer and others, a court ruled on Tuesday, in a closely watched case against the U.S…
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A court in Munich has ruled that OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT violated German copyright laws by using hits from top-selling musicians to train its language models in what creative industry advocates described as a landmark European ruling.
The …
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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