2026-08-03 01:00:12
A German Court Just Ruled AI Music Training Without a License Is Illegal — And It’s the Second Time
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The Munich Regional Court ruled on July 31, 2026 that AI music platform Suno infringed copyright by training its model on songs represented by GEMA, Germany’s music rights collecting society, without a license. It’s the first European ruling to explicitly establish that generative AI music tools need permission to train on copyrighted compositions — and the same Munich court that ruled against OpenAI on nearly identical grounds just eight months earlier. GEMA brought the case in January 2025 over six well-known compositions, including Boney M.’s “Rasputin,” Alphaville’s “Forever Young,” and Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5.” The court found Suno’s model had memorized and reproduced the works during training, ordered the company to cease unauthorized use and disclose revenue tied to the infringement, and awarded damages in an amount still to be determined, according to JUVE Patent’s coverage of the ruling . The judgment is not yet enforceable, and Suno retains the right to appeal. The legal argument that actually decided the case Suno raised nearly every available defense: that the musical elements at issue were insufficiently protected, that its outputs weren’t recognizably similar to the originals, that its model stored only mathematical patterns rather than actual song copies, that US fair use doctrine covered its training activity, and that EU and German text-and-data-mining exceptions provided legal cover. The court rejected nearly all of it, including a jurisdictional challenge that training conducted on US soil fell outside Munich’s reach — the court held that reproduction occurring during US-based training, and again when the trained model was stored and used on German servers, both triggered German copyright law. A second win builds a pattern, not just a precedent This is GEMA’s second consecutive victory in the same Munich courtroom against a major AI company, following a November 2025 ruling against OpenAI over reproduced song lyrics. The chamber, under presiding judge Elke Schwager, has now applied a consistently narrow reading of the text-and-data-mining exception twice in a row — a pattern legal observers say is likely to influence how courts elsewhere in the EU approach similar cases, even though German rulings carry no binding authority outside the country. The commercial pressure this creates, licensing or litigation Some AI music platforms are already choosing to settle rather than litigate: both Suno and Udio have reached agreements with Warner Music, and Udio separately settled with Universal. Spotify and Universal have gone further, signing a licensing deal specifically covering AI covers and remixes — an attempt to build a functioning legal market for generative music rather than resolve every dispute in court. Sony Music, notably, is still actively pursuing separate litigation against both Suno and Udio, meaning this ruling is unlikely to be the last word even for Suno specifically. What to watch next Whether Suno appeals the ruling, and how the Munich Court of Appeals handles the pending, related GEMA v. OpenAI case. Whether Sony Music’s separate litigation against Suno and Udio produces a different outcome or settlement. Whether other EU courts cite the Munich reasoning in upcoming AI copyright disputes, despite the lack of binding cross-border authority. Sources Munich Regional Court Stops Suno Using GEMA-Protected Music — JUVE Patent A German Court Says AI Music Maker Suno Broke Copyright, a First for Europe — TheNextWeb GEMA Notches a Second Transatlantic AI Copyright Win in Germany — Reed Smith The post A German Court Just Ruled AI Music Training Without a License Is Illegal — And It’s the Second Time appeared first on Times Tabloid .