Munich court rules OpenAI infringed copyright by memorising and reproducing GEMA song lyrics in ChatGPT

What happened

On 11 November 2025, the Munich Regional Court I (Landgericht München I, 42nd Civil Chamber, case no. 42 O 14139/24) ruled in favour of the collecting society GEMA against OpenAI, L.L.C. and OpenAI Ireland Ltd. over the use of song lyrics in ChatGPT. GEMA had sued in November 2024 on behalf of the authors and publishers of nine German songs.

The nine songs

The lyrics at issue were "Atemlos" by Kristina Bach, "36 Grad", "Bochum" and "Männer" by Herbert Grönemeyer, "Über den Wolken" by Reinhard Mey, "Junge" by Jan Vetter, and "Es schneit", "In der Weihnachtsbäckerei" and "Wie schön, dass du geboren bist" by Rolf Zuckowski. GEMA said its own sampling of ChatGPT (models 4 and 4o) showed the system reproducing the lyrics in response to simple prompts, sometimes exactly and sometimes in slightly modified form. GEMA had lodged a reservation against text and data mining under § 44b of the German Copyright Act.

What the court held

• Memorisation of the lyrics in the language models constituted reproduction under § 16 of the German Copyright Act: the works were physically fixed in the model parameters and could be made indirectly perceptible, even though no discrete dataset could be identified in the model.
• Reproduction of the lyrics in ChatGPT outputs constituted a further reproduction and an act of communication to the public, because the fragments appeared even in response to basic prompts.
• The text and data mining exception (§ 44b) covered only reproductions made when compiling the training-data corpus; it did not cover the training phase itself, in which works were fixed in the model. The court also rejected implied consent and incidental inclusion.
• OpenAI, as the model operator, was liable for infringements in outputs because it exercised control over the process; that control was not lost to the user for simple prompts.

Orders and status

The court ordered OpenAI to refrain from the infringing uses (with a fine of up to €250,000 or imprisonment of up to six months per violation for non-compliance), to disclose the extent of the uses and the revenue generated from them, and to compensate GEMA for damage already suffered and yet to suffer. It also authorised publication of the operative part of the judgment in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The only part of GEMA's claim dismissed was an alleged infringement of general personality rights over incorrect attribution of modified lyrics.

This is a first-instance judgment and is not final: an appeal is recorded before the Munich Higher Regional Court (6 U 3662/25). OpenAI said it disagreed with the ruling, was considering next steps, and described the decision as limited to the nine lyrics at issue. These are the court's holdings and the parties' stated positions; no higher court has ruled on the appeal.