Berlin, 14 November 2024 – Raue represents the music collecting society GEMA before the Munich Regional Court in its first lawsuit worldwide against the AI provider OpenAI for the unlicensed use of protected song lyrics.

GEMA represents the copyrights of around 95,000 members in Germany (composers, lyricists, music publishers) as well as over two million rights owners from all over the world. It is one of the world's largest collecting societies for musical works.

GEMA's complaint is that OpenAI is using its chatbot ChatGPT to reproduce copyrighted song lyrics on demand without having obtained the necessary authorisation. The lawsuit also alleges unauthorised adaptations (hallucinations) and infringement of the lyricists' moral rights.

Raue has provided comprehensive copyright advice to GEMA in this matter and is representing GEMA in enforcing its members' claims against the American parent company, OpenAI, L.L.C., as well as OpenAI Ireland Ltd, the operator of the chatbot in Europe.

Advisors to GEMA

Raue, Berlin: Dr. Robert Heine (Partner, Lead, Media), Dr. Felix Laurin Stang (Partner, Media), Lisa Schopp (Senior Associate, Media)

Inhouse: Dr. Kai Welp

A photo of Dr. Robert Heine can be downloaded here.