A German court has ruled that OpenAI’s ChatGPT violated national copyright laws. The court found that the company trained its language models on licensed musical works without obtaining permission. This decision was reported by multiple news outlets, including The Guardian.
The ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed last November by GEMA, the organization responsible for managing music rights in Germany. The court ordered OpenAI to pay an undisclosed amount of damages to GEMA. OpenAI stated that it disagrees with the ruling and is considering its next steps.
GEMA described the decision as the first landmark AI ruling in Europe. GEMA’s chief executive, Tobias Holzmüller, said the precedent protects and clarifies the rights of authors. He stated that the ruling confirms that even operators of AI tools like ChatGPT must comply with copyright law, and that the decision successfully defends the livelihoods of music creators.
OpenAI is facing similar legal challenges from other creative groups and media organizations over the same issue of training its models on copyrighted work without permission.