Overview
- Germany’s Munich Regional Court held that OpenAI’s language models and ChatGPT outputs infringed songwriters’ exploitation rights by reproducing lyrics without authorization.
- The case, brought by rights society Gema, concerned works by nine German songwriters and was described by the plaintiffs as a first-of-its-kind decision in Europe.
- Judges relied on Court of Justice of the European Union jurisprudence to find that an indirect perception of a work can constitute reproduction.
- Most of Gema’s claims were granted, but the court did not specify how any damages would be calculated, leaving that question unresolved.
- OpenAI had argued its models do not store specific works and that users bear responsibility for prompts, a position challenged by the judgment as creator groups hailed broader implications across the EU.