German court holds OpenAI liable for reproducing song lyrics

Music rights society GEMA sued OpenAI in Munich, alleging ChatGPT reproduced song lyrics. On 11 November 2025 the Munich Regional Court found the lyrics were reproduced almost word for word and held OpenAI liable.

Media & Entertainment 2025 Verified in a source

Insurance products that may respond

Media / IP liabilityStandalone AI liability

Why it matters for insurance

EU exposure for memorised output. Confirm appeal status.

Source

Taylor Wessing: GEMA v OpenAI, Munich Regional Court (11 Nov 2025)

More Intellectual property scenarios

$1.5B settlement over pirated books used to train an LLM News publisher sues OpenAI and Microsoft over training and output copying Studios sue Midjourney over character images generated on demand UK court rejects Getty's core copyright claim against Stability AI Fair use rejected for a non-generative legal-AI training set Record labels sue AI music generators, then move to licensing deals Music publishers allege an LLM outputs their lyrics Visual artists' class action against image generators: trial date keeps slipping Meta wins fair-use ruling on training with books Business publishes AI-generated image or copy that copies a protected work Ninth Circuit upholds dismissal of claims that a code assistant strips open-source licences University sues an AI developer for patent infringement Voice actors sue over cloned voices Encyclopedia publishers sue over training, output copying and false attribution Warner Bros. Discovery sues Midjourney over Superman, Scooby-Doo and other characters

Could your AI create this exposure?

See how AI-aware Tech E&O, Cyber, and D&O respond, and get a program built for your risk.

This is an educational research summary built from public information. Allegations in pending cases are unproven, and the insurance notes above are for discussion, not coverage advice. Whether any policy responds depends on its specific wording, exclusions, endorsements, the facts, and applicable law.

Back to all scenarios

Reviewed by Andrei Craciunescu, CA Licensed Insurance Broker #4467994