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Munich court rules ChatGPT's memorised song lyrics infringe copyright (GEMA v OpenAI)
Regional Court Munich I (case 42 O 14139/24) found that lyrics of nine German songs were reproducibly fixed in OpenAI's models, that such memorisation is a reproduction under copyright law, and that the text-and-data-mining exception does not cover it. OpenAI was also held responsible for infringing outputs and ordered to cease, disclose information and pay damages; an appeal, possibly reaching the CJEU, is expected.
Why it matters
It is the first European judgment treating memorisation inside model weights as copying, raising licensing and output-filtering stakes for any model offered in the EU.
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Connections our researchers recorded
- DevelopmentDelhi High Court refuses ANI's bid to stop OpenAI training on its news24 Jul 2026 · Enforcement or ruling · INContrasts with: Delhi found no evidence of memorisation, the issue on which Munich found OpenAI liable.
- DevelopmentUK High Court rejects Getty's secondary copyright claim against Stability AI4 Nov 2025 · Enforcement or ruling · GBContrasts with: A week apart, Munich found works fixed in model weights while London found weights store no copies.
What led here
Earlier developments on the same thread
- DevelopmentEBU-BBC study finds almost half of AI assistant news answers have a significant flaw21 Oct 2025 · Research · INTL
- DevelopmentOpenAI, Anthropic and Google offer frontier AI to US agencies for about $1 via GSA6 Aug 2025 · Procurement · US
- DevelopmentGemini Deep Think earns officially graded gold-medal score at IMO 202521 Jul 2025 · Research · GB, US
- DevelopmentPentagon AI office awards Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI up to $200m each14 Jul 2025 · Procurement · US
What happened next
Later developments on the same thread
- DevelopmentWhite House sends Congress AI framework calling for preemption of state laws20 Mar 2026 · Policy · US
- DevelopmentSAG-AFTRA ratifies four-year studio deal restricting synthetic performers4 Jun 2026 · Deal · US
- DevelopmentThird Circuit upholds ruling that ROSS's AI training on Westlaw was not fair use29 Sep 2026 · Enforcement or ruling · US
- DevelopmentOpenAI publishes a batch of new maths results from an internal model, with Lean proofs6 Oct 2026 · Research · US
Same story elsewhere
What other countries and bodies did on this
- DevelopmentUS Justice Department backs OpenAI's fair-use defence in New York Times case1 Sep 2026 · Statement · US
- DevelopmentCourt gives final approval to Anthropic's $1.5bn settlement with book authors20 Jul 2026 · Enforcement or ruling · US
- DevelopmentEU publishes General-Purpose AI Code of Practice ahead of AI Act model duties10 Jul 2025 · Rule change · EU
- DevelopmentWarner Music settles with Suno and agrees licensed AI music models for 202625 Nov 2025 · Deal · US
Rules in play
Laws and guidance this touches
- RuleGPAI Code of PracticeEU · In force · 10 Jul 2025
- RuleUK Copyright and AI reportGB · In force · 18 Mar 2026
- RuleEU AI ActEU · Partly in force · 13 Jun 2024
- RuleGPAI guidelines and training-data summary templateEU · In force · 18 Jul 2025
Threads by topic: Copyright Frontier models