AI vs. copyright: court orders OpenAI to pay damages for using song lyrics
12 November 2025 14:24
In Munich, the court sided with the German organization GEMA, which represents more than 100,000 composers and musicians, in a case against the American company OpenAI.
The court ruling prohibits OpenAI from using song lyrics without a license, and the company is obliged to compensate for damages for copyright infringement. This was reported by Reuters, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
What is known about the case
GEMA accused OpenAI of reproducing copyrighted lyrics by its chatbot ChatGPT without the permission of the copyright holders. According to the organization, the artificial intelligence was trained on content from the catalog of GEMA members, including famous musicians, including Herbert Grenemeier.
Representatives of OpenAI stated that the plaintiffs “misunderstand” how their model works and that ChatGPT does not store or reproduce original lyrics in the usual sense.
Legal aspect
The court’s decision has not yet entered into force – OpenAI may appeal it. However, this case could become a precedent in Europe, determining how to regulate the use of copyrighted works for training generative artificial intelligence systems.
GEMA is pushing for a unified licensing system
The unifiedlicensing system will oblige AI developers to pay royalties not only for training models on music data, but also for using the results created on their basis.
