OpenAI faces new copyright lawsuit in Germany; accused of using lyrics from popular songs
ChatGPT creator has been accused of copyright infringement by a German court. As reported by Reuters, a regional court in Munich has ruled that OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT has violated German copyright laws by reproducing lyrics from nine popular songs without any authorisation. The lawsuit filed by German music ights organization GEMA, which represents composers, lyricists, and publishers accuse OpenAI of copyright infringement.
As per the report, the German court found that OpenAI has trained its language model on copyright-protected content, including lyrics from songs by renowned German artists such as Herbert Grönemeyer and Helene Fischer. Notable tracks cited in the case include Grönemeyer’s “Männer” and “Bochum”, and Fischer’s “Atemlos durch die Nacht”.
Judge Elke Schwager has ordered OpenAI to pay damages for the unauthorised use of German songs. However, the report has not disclosed the exact amount to be paid by OpenAI.
Implications for AI training and copyright
The ruling made by the German court underscores the growing concerns over how generative AI models are trained on copyright data. GEMA’s legal advisor Kai Welp noted that the organization hopes this decision will lead to clearer frameworks for compensating rights holders when their work is used to train AI systems.
OpenAI on the other hand argued that its models do not store or copy specific data, but rather generate outputs based on patterns learned from large datasets. But, the court concluded that memorisation and reproduction of lyrics by ChatGPT constituted a breach of copyright law.
OpenAI accused of Game of Thrones copyright violation
This is not the first time that OpenAI has faced such allegations. Last month, the ChatGPT creator faced copyright violations charges in the US. A US judge has reportedly allowed a major class-action lawsuit against OpenAI to move forward. Citing a ChatGPT-generated idea for a "Game of Thrones" book as a potential copyright violation, US District Judge Sidney Stein issued a ruling in Manhattan Federal Court that addressed the AI's resemblance to legally protected works, a report claims. Judge Stein said: “A reasonable jury could find that the allegedly infringing outputs are substantially similar to plaintiffs' works."
According to a Business Insider report, the decision was made in a consolidated case brought by numerous authors, including Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin, Michael Chabon, and Sarah Silverman, against both OpenAI and Microsoft. The authors allege that OpenAI and Microsoft violated their copyrights by using their books without permission to train large language models, resulting in AI "outputs" that resembled the original material.
As per the report, the German court found that OpenAI has trained its language model on copyright-protected content, including lyrics from songs by renowned German artists such as Herbert Grönemeyer and Helene Fischer. Notable tracks cited in the case include Grönemeyer’s “Männer” and “Bochum”, and Fischer’s “Atemlos durch die Nacht”.
Judge Elke Schwager has ordered OpenAI to pay damages for the unauthorised use of German songs. However, the report has not disclosed the exact amount to be paid by OpenAI.
Implications for AI training and copyright
The ruling made by the German court underscores the growing concerns over how generative AI models are trained on copyright data. GEMA’s legal advisor Kai Welp noted that the organization hopes this decision will lead to clearer frameworks for compensating rights holders when their work is used to train AI systems.
OpenAI on the other hand argued that its models do not store or copy specific data, but rather generate outputs based on patterns learned from large datasets. But, the court concluded that memorisation and reproduction of lyrics by ChatGPT constituted a breach of copyright law.
OpenAI accused of Game of Thrones copyright violation
This is not the first time that OpenAI has faced such allegations. Last month, the ChatGPT creator faced copyright violations charges in the US. A US judge has reportedly allowed a major class-action lawsuit against OpenAI to move forward. Citing a ChatGPT-generated idea for a "Game of Thrones" book as a potential copyright violation, US District Judge Sidney Stein issued a ruling in Manhattan Federal Court that addressed the AI's resemblance to legally protected works, a report claims. Judge Stein said: “A reasonable jury could find that the allegedly infringing outputs are substantially similar to plaintiffs' works."
According to a Business Insider report, the decision was made in a consolidated case brought by numerous authors, including Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin, Michael Chabon, and Sarah Silverman, against both OpenAI and Microsoft. The authors allege that OpenAI and Microsoft violated their copyrights by using their books without permission to train large language models, resulting in AI "outputs" that resembled the original material.
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