OpenAI, the US$157 billion American artificial intelligence giant behind ChatGPT, has been sued by the German Collections Association and licensing agency GEMA.
GEMA claims that OpenAI “copied[es] Protecting the lyrics of German authors without obtaining permission or paying fees to the authors involved”.
According to the organization, the lawsuit seeks to “demonstrate that OpenAI systematically used GEMA’s skills to train its systems.”
GEMA stands for surrounding copyright 95,000 German members (composers, lyricists, music publishers) and more two million Rights holders worldwide.
The lawsuit is the latest major lawsuit filed against an artificial intelligence company for allegedly copying lyrics without permission through a chatbot.
last fall, Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group and ABCCO A lawsuit was filed against Anthropic, claiming that the company’s Claude chatbot “unlawfully reproduces and distributes numerous copyrighted works, including the lyrics of countless musical works that it owns or controls.” [plaintiffs]”.
GEMA noted on Wednesday (November 13) that OpenAI “has become a leading global provider in generative artificial intelligence, with current annual sales exceeding $2 billion” and that “the company is targeting sales of up to $5 billion by 2024.” .
But it claims that OpenAI’s ChatGPT “was trained using copyrighted text, including lyrics from the tracks of some 95,000 GEMA members” who “have not been compensated for the use of their work.”
GEMA filed a lawsuit with the Munich District Court on Wednesday against U.S. parent company OpenAI, LLC and the company’s European operator OpenAI Ireland Ltd.
The lawsuit claims that “when simple prompts are entered, [ChatGPT] Reproduces the original lyrics on which the system was apparently trained”.
GEMA said on Wednesday that “while other online services pay authors license fees for the use of their text, OpenAI systematically uses authors’ content in a manner that intentionally infringes copyright” and that “fair remuneration is circumvented.”
GEMA’s lawsuit alleges that numerous well-known German music artists and their music publishers, including Kristina Bach (“Atemlos”), Rolf Zuckowski, Reinhard Mey, Inga Humpe, Thomas Eckert, Ulf Sommer and Peter Plate, support GEMA’s lawsuit.
The collection association claims that their “lyrics have apparently been exploited for free by chatbots”.
The lawsuit was filed more than a month after GEMA proposed a generative artificial intelligence licensing model.
Last week, GEMA launched an “Artificial Intelligence Charter” calling for a responsible approach to generating artificial intelligence.
GEMA has also launched a microsite dedicated to legal action against OpenAI.
“Our members’ songs are not free raw material for generating business models for providers of artificial intelligence systems.”
PhD. Tobias Holzmüller, GEMA
Dr. Tobias Holzmüller, CEO of GEMA, said: “Our members’ songs are not free raw material that generates business models for providers of artificial intelligence systems. Anyone who wants to use these songs must obtain a license and pay the author fairly. We develop this A licensing model. We are and will always take legal action against unlicensed use.
“GEMA’s lawsuit sends an important signal: the livelihoods of our creative professionals are at stake.”
PhD. Ralph Wiegand, GEMA
Dr. Ralf Weigand, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, added: “Last week, we made it clear in GEMA’s Artificial Intelligence Charter that human creative results must not be used as free templates for the products of artificial intelligence providers in deep commercial development chains.
“Similarly, we cannot accept copyright infringement in chatbot output. GEMA’s lawsuit sends an important signal: the livelihoods of our creative professionals are at stake.
“The new technology raises fundamental legal questions for us that we absolutely must clarify.”
PhD. Kay Welp, GEMA
Dr. Kai Welp, General Counsel of GEMA, said: “New technology raises fundamental legal questions for us that we absolutely must clarify.
“This is the only way we can successfully establish a licensing model on the market that strikes a fair balance between the interests of creators and developers. Our model program makes a decisive contribution to this. However, it also shows our readiness to execute Author’s rights.
Other AI companies facing legal action for using music without permission include AI music generators Suno and Udio.
In June, the controversial startup was sued by major record labels for allegedly using their recordings without permission to train their systems.
Both companies admitted in court documents that they used copyrighted recordings from the companies suing them.
Separately, OpenAI recently won a copyright battle brought by two news outlets. MBW asked what this result means for the music industry’s lawsuits against artificial intelligence companies.global music business
