📰 AI News: German Court Rules OpenAI's Training and Output Both Violate Copyright...First Major Legal Loss
A German court delivered OpenAI its first major copyright defeat, ruling that ChatGPT infringes copyright law both when memorizing song lyrics during training and when reproducing them in outputs. The decision could reshape how AI companies operate across Europe. The announcement: The Munich Regional Court ruled Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright law by using song lyrics to train ChatGPT without licenses and by reproducing those lyrics when users prompt the chatbot. Presiding Judge Elke Schwager ordered OpenAI to pay damages to the artists whose work was used without authorization. The case was filed in November 2024 by GEMA, Germany's music rights society representing over 100,000 composers, songwriters, and publishers, on behalf of artists behind nine German songs, including work by best-selling musician Herbert Groenemeyer. The court's ruling was explicit: "Both the memorisation in the language models and the reproduction of the song lyrics in the chatbot's outputs constitute infringements of copyright law." What the ruling establishes: → Training is infringement: Simply storing copyrighted content in AI models—even if never directly output—violates copyright law → Output is also infringement: When ChatGPT reproduces song lyrics in responses to user prompts, that constitutes separate copyright violation → Compensation is required: Artists are entitled to damages both for the memorization during training and for reproduction in outputs → Licensing framework needed: AI developers must purchase licenses and pay creators before using their work for training or output → Precedent potential: As the first copyright decision against OpenAI, this could influence how generative AI is regulated across Europe OpenAI's response: "We disagree with the ruling and are considering next steps," OpenAI said in a statement. "The decision is for a limited set of lyrics and does not impact the millions of people, businesses and developers in Germany that use our technology every day."