Incident 1278: ChatGPT Reportedly Found to Reproduce Protected German Lyrics in Copyright Case

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.

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Alleged: 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
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

2.1. Compromise of privacy by obtaining, leaking or correctly inferring sensitive information

Risk Domain

  1. Privacy & Security

Entity

AI

Timing

Post-deployment

Intent

Unintentional

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OpenAI used song lyrics in violation of copyright laws, German court says
reuters.com · 2025

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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ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics, German court rules
theguardian.com · 2025

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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