Today’s oral proceedings in the court case brought by GEMA against AI service provider OpenAI before the Munich Regional Court have attracted huge interest. The lawsuit is Europe’s first major court case to address fundamental questions concerning the use of copyright-protected work by providers of generative AI systems. The proceedings have clarified that the functioning of AI systems falls within the scope of copyright law.
GEMA regards the use of its repertoire by artificial intelligence (AI) as an opportunity for new approaches to writing music. The association already offers a fair solution for making the most of this opportunity, in the form of a licensing model developed specifically for providers of AI tools back in September 2024. According to the model, music creators receive appropriate remuneration for their work while AI applications are legally entitled to use and generate music based on this work. Consequently, GEMA is highly critical of OpenAI’s ongoing failure to pay any remuneration to copyright holders for the use of song lyrics from the repertoire of music belonging to GEMA’s 100,000 or so members.
Whereas multiple lawsuits against AI service providers have already made headlines in the USA, no landmark decisions have yet been made in Europe. Today’s hearing is a major step towards clarifying many of the fundamental legal issues concerned.
“Today’s proceedings clearly demonstrated that the various processes in AI systems are also subject to copyright law. This has vital implications for the remuneration of creative artists. The emergence of generative AI systems raises a large number of fundamental legal questions. This is why what happened today is such an important step towards resolving legal uncertainties – uncertainties that currently provide AI service providers with a pretext for evading their obligations,” said Dr Kai Welp, General Counsel for GEMA as he commented on the hearing.
Having conducted an in-depth examination of the arguments presented by both sides in the dispute, the court now has an opportunity to define fundamental parameters for future interactions between AI service providers and creatives in Europe. The statutory and regulatory environment will play a key role in establishing an AI licensing market that safeguards the livelihoods of creatives while setting out clearly defined conditions for AI service providers. The Regional Court announced that a ruling will be passed down on November 11, 2025.
Affected: works by Herbert Grönemeyer, Inga Humpe and Reinhard Mey
GEMA believes in fair remuneration for music creators. To ensure that authors and songwriters can continue to make a living from their creative activities in the future, providers of generative AI tools should be required to obtain a licence for training their AI models on this work and commercialising the resulting AI-generated songs in their output. Last autumn, GEMA proposed a suitable licensing model. To establish a duty of remuneration in the market, GEMA became the world’s first collecting society to initiate representative lawsuits with the aim of clarifying hitherto unresolved legal issues. The lawsuit against OpenAI is supported by well-known German music creators, including Herbert Grönemeyer, Kristina Bach (Atemlos), Rolf Zuckowski, Reinhard Mey, Inga Humpe, Tommi Eckart, Ulf Sommer and Peter Plate.
OpenAI is one of the world’s leading providers in the field of generative AI and already boasts annual revenues more than two billion dollars, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Despite this commercial success, music creators have not yet benefited from the use of their compositions. By filing a lawsuit against OpenAI with the Munich Regional Court, GEMA is sending a very clear message: even when new technologies appear, creatives must be fairly remunerated for their work.
Also awaiting a hearing before the same chamber of the Regional Court is another lawsuit brought by GEMA against music provider Suno AI. GEMA was able to prove that the service was trained on original recordings from the GEMA repertoire and now reproduces versions that are misleadingly similar. The chamber is expected to hear this case soon.
About GEMA
In Germany, GEMA represents copyrights held by more than 100,000 members (composers, lyricists and music publishers) and over two million owners of intellectual property rights worldwide. It is one of the largest collecting societies for creators of musical works in the world.
Interviews with GEMA CEO Dr Tobias Holzmüller and GEMA legal counsel Dr Kai Welp can be arranged in consultation with the press contacts below. Further information can be found at:
Note to editors