German court orders OpenAI to pay damages for violating copyright laws
13 Nov 2025, 04:44 PMThe ruling by the German court is significant globally as OpenAI faces allegations of copyright violations and warnings.
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A German court has ruled that OpenAI's ChatGPT has violated copyright laws by training its large language models by using licensed works of top-selling musicians, the Guardian reported.
The presiding judge has ordered the Sam Altman-led company to pay undisclosed damages for using copyrighted material without permission
Germany’s music rights society GEMA had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI November last year. In the lawsuit, it had said that ChatGPT had used the works of popular musicians without permission.
One of the works was Helene Fischer’s Atemlos Durch die Nacht (Breathless Through the Night), which was the unofficial anthem of the German side during the 2014 football World Cup.
The ruling by the German court is significant globally as OpenAI faces allegations of copyright violations and warnings.
Recently, Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), a Japanese trade organisation, wrote to OpenAI to stop training its AI model without the permission of its members' content.
OpenAI is also facing copyright issue in India from media organisations including news agency ANI Media for scraping their content without permission.
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