Munich court rules ChatGPT’s memorised song lyrics infringe copyright
Confirmed
The takeaway
Munich Regional Court I (case 42 O 14139/24) held that OpenAI infringed copyright because GPT models memorised and reproduced the lyrics of nine German songs: memorisation in model weights counts as reproduction and falls outside the EU text-and-data-mining exception.
Status
- Claim
Confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Importance
- 3 of 5
- Last verified
- 29 September 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 AstraIn its training data
- Claude Opus 5.5In its training data
- Gemini 4 HydrogenIn its training data
- Grok 4.7In its training data
It happened before the cutoffs of all four assistants, so it can be in their training data.
Key facts
- Decided 2025-11-11 by Landgericht München I, case no. 42 O 14139/24; claimant GEMA (German collecting society for music authors/publishers)
- Nine songs’ lyrics, incl. ‘Atemlos’ (Kristina Bach), ‘Männer’ (Herbert Grönemeyer), ‘Über den Wolken’ (Reinhard Mey)
- Held: memorisation in model parameters = reproduction; TDM exception covers only the analytical phase of training, not memorisation
- Outputs reproduced lyrics recognisably; added hallucinations did not change that
- OpenAI ordered to cease, pay damages and disclose scope of use and revenue; not final, appeal pending at the Munich Higher Regional Court
What happened
GEMA sued OpenAI in Munich over the lyrics of nine well-known German songs that ChatGPT could reproduce on request. The court sided with GEMA: storing the lyrics in the model (memorisation) is itself a reproduction, the EU text-and-data-mining exception does not cover it, and outputs reproducing the lyrics infringe too. OpenAI was enjoined and ordered to pay damages and disclose usage and revenue. The judgment is not final; the appeal is pending.
Why it matters
It gave European rights holders a legal theory, “memorisation is copying”, that does not depend on US fair use. GEMA reused it against Suno in July 2026 and won again.
Sources
4 sources from 4 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
4 sources: 3 press, 1 reaction
Press
- Bird & Bird: Landmark ruling of the Munich Regional Court (GEMA v OpenAI)twobirds.com, press
- CMS: GEMA vs OpenAI, Munich Regional Court I issues landmark copyright decisioncms.law, press
- Norton Rose Fulbright: Germany delivers landmark copyright ruling against OpenAInortonrosefulbright.com, press
Reactions
- English (AI-translated) text of the judgmentchatgptiseatingtheworld.com, discussion
Changes
- Filed (snowball from GEMA v Suno research)