ChatGPT’s Use of Song Lyrics Violates Copyright, Munich Court Finds

A Munich court ruled that OpenAI's ChatGPT unlawfully reproduced copyrighted German song lyrics, marking a significant precedent for AI training under EU copyright laws. The German music rights organization GEMA claimed in court that ChatGPT's models, GPT-4 and GPT-4o, contained memorized lyrics from several popular songs, including tracks by Kristina Bach and Rolf Zuckowski. The court deemed that such memorization amounted to a reproduction of protected works, violating the EU InfoSoc Directive. As part of the ruling, OpenAI must cease reproducing these works, disclose training details, and compensate rights holders. OpenAI plans to appeal the decision. The court debated whether the model merely generated outputs based on prompts or retained specific lyrics as exact reproductions. GEMA asserted that the model's responses closely matched song lyrics when prompted, while OpenAI contended that no stored data was present, only statistical patterns learned during training. If the ruling is upheld, it could significantly impact how AI companies manage and license creative materials in Europe.

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