11 November 2025 saw a landmark ruling from the German court in favour of GEMA, the German government-mandated royalty collection society for musicians, in which OpenAI was found to have unlawfully used German song lyrics to train and operate its large language model ChatGPT.
The Court found that where ChatGPT reproduces song lyrics to users that it has been trained with, and thus subsequently retained, that act constitutes copyright infringement. OpenAI’s defence proposed that it qualified for exemption from copyright infringement due to its status as a privileged research organisation. However, the Court did not look favourably upon ChatGPT replying to user prompts with direct copies of well-known song lyrics, and determined that OpenAI should have obtained the correct licences for its use of the song lyrics in question.
The German Court is the first in Europe to find an AI company liable for copyright infringement for the unlicenced use of works for both training AI and for the AI’s output. While public opinion may be divided as to the Court’s determination, this matter may well set a precedent for any AI-related litigation that will undoubtedly arise in future.
If you have any questions on the above, or if you need any advice or support in respect of your own Intellectual Property, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.
