The German rights organization GEMA filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, L.L.C., the American generative AI company, to enforce the copyright claims of its members at the Regional Court of Munich. The suit, filed on November 13, 2024, also targeted OpenAI Ireland Ltd., the operator of the chatbot in Europe.
The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI reproduces lyrics without having acquired rights or compensating authors or rights-holders; to train its systems. When entering simple prompts, the OpenAI chatbot reproduces the original lyrics of the songs with which the system has obviously been trained.
GEMA’s premise is very similar to the lawsuit filed in December 2023 by The New York Times, for similar unlicenced use of its content by OpenAI.
While other Internet services pay license fees for the authors for the use of the texts, OpenAI systematically makes use of the contents of the authors by knowingly accepting copyright infringements. Fair remuneration is thus circumvented.
Dr. Tobias Holzmüller, CEO of GEMA, says: “The songs of our members are not the free raw material for the business models of the providers of generative AI systems. If you want to use these songs, you must acquire a license and pay the authors fairly. We have developed a licensing model for this. We are taking legal action against unlicensed uses.”
OpenAI has become the world’s leading provider of generative AI and now generates revenue of more than $2 billion annually. In 2024, the company is aiming for sales of up to $5 billion. The AI-supported voice system ChatGPT has also been trained with copyrighted texts, including lyrics from the repertoire of the approximately 95,000 GEMA members. They have not yet been paid for the use of their works.
Further reading
GEMA files model lawsuit to clarify the remuneration obligation of AI providers in Europe. Press release. November 13, 2024. GEMA (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte, or the Society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights)
In-depth information
- FAQ on the lawsuit against OpenAI
- The AI Charter of GEMA
- Information on the AI licensing model as well as statements, facts & figures about “AI and music” can be found in the digital AI dossier of GEMA
- To the study “AI and Music” (2024)
The New York Times Company, Plaintiff, v. Microsoft Corporation, Open AI, Inc. (and business units of OpenAI), Defendants. Complaint. Document 1. Case 1:23-cv-11195. Filed December 27, 2023. US District Court of the Southern District of New York.
Why it matters
GEMA accuses OpenAI of reproducing protected lyrics of German authors without having acquired licenses or remunerating the authors of the works used. The procedure serves to prove that OpenAI systematically uses GEMA’s repertoire to train its systems.
GEMA claims to be the first collecting society in the world to file a lawsuit against a provider of systems of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for the unlicensed use of protected musical works. Specifically, it is about the US company OpenAI, the operator of autogenerative chatbot systems.
GEMA is a German rights management organization and fiduciary trustee for more than 95,000 members, which include music publishers, composers, lyricists and their legal successors. It manages the rights for its members and for more than two million foreign rightsholders and ensure that they are fairly compensated.
