Not only are we among the approximately 34 million readers and fans of Charlotte Link’s books—we are also particularly pleased to represent her legal interests and advise her as her attorneys. Charlotte Link is one of the most likable, well-known, and commercially successful authors in the country. Anyone who reaches so many people with their stories bears responsibility—and at the same time deserves respect in public discourse. Freedom of the press is a precious commodity. At the same time, we always strive to maintain a balance between freedom of expression and the protection of privacy. Ideally, freedom of the press and general personal rights are even the best of friends.

The Munich I Regional Court (Ref. 42 O 14139/24) has handed down its eagerly awaited ruling in the case of GEMA v. OpenAI Ireland Ltd./OpenAI LLC, which operates the AI program ChatGPT. GEMA filed a lawsuit because nine song lyrics—including well-known German songs such as “Atemlos” by Kristina Bach and “Männer” by Herbert Grönemeyer—were used by the ChatGPT system without a license and were played back largely true to the original in response to corresponding user queries.

A landmark ruling in the first instance, which is already generating anticipation for the next instance and then the Federal Court of Justice:

• The Munich Regional Court assumed that training the language model with the song lyrics and, in particular, outputting these texts in identical or nearly identical wording constituted a reproduction relevant to copyright law.
• The mere storage or “memorization” of the lyrics in ChatGPT was considered an infringement of the exploitation right pursuant to Section 16 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG). ChatGPT had not generated the song lyrics anew, but had resorted to the stored lyrics.
• The limitation provision of Section 44b UrhG (“text & data mining”) was not applicable because not only had information been extracted, but complete works or word sequences had been taken over and stored in a reproducible form.
• The output of the song lyrics – the AI output – constituted making available to the public within the meaning of Section 19a UrhG or reproduction.

On the admissibility of identifying word reporting on the non-prominent spouse of a public figure

We look forward to our event with MOIN Filmförderung as part of the “All you need is law” series on October 1, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. on the topic of “More film budget with private capital?”

Our artificial intelligence specialist, Dr. Ralph Oliver Graef, will be attending the Film Commission Stuttgart conference on “Working Conditions in the Film Industry” on October 11, 2025. He will be addressing the question of how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the working conditions of creative professionals and producers.

Premiere of the animated film “Grand Prix of Europe” in Berlin, or as BILD puts it, “Forget Formula 1! From now on, ‘Formula Mouse’ is stepping on the fun pedal…” Mack Vision and Mack Media, subsidiaries of Europapark Rust, have made their first animated film and, according to BILD, are already being hailed as the “German Disney” counterpart. We are delighted to be part of the team.

In a landmark ruling from the US the United States District Court for the District of Delaware held that the AI company Ross Intelligence is not allowed to use content from Thomson Reuter’s legal research platform Westlaw for the purpose of training its AI-based platform. Ross Intelligence’s fair use defense failed. The court argued that Ross Intelligence’s use of the data was commercial in nature and non-transformative because the use did not have a “further purpose or character” apart from Thompson Reuters’ use. Moreover, Ross Inteligence’ intended purpose was to compete with Thompson Reuters.

Our copyright law expert, Dr. Ralph Graef, who is also admitted as an attorney-at-law in the USA, in an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) [Download].

A serious and touching topic: on the trail of a catfish. A person who blogged under the fake identity Jule Stinkesocke as a supposedly paraplegic young woman. Jule Stinkesocke was a role model for many disabled people online, especially young disabled women. But instead, there are many indications that Jule is an older, non-disabled man. What a disappointment and a disaster for those affected.
Producing a movie like this over four episodes in a way that is unassailable under press law without taking away its “punch” and poignancy is an art form. We are pleased for all those affected, the producers and ZDF that we succeeded in doing this despite considerable headwinds in the run-up to the broadcast. 💪😊

WTF is Jule?!

‘Art, film and music as door openers’ – Dr Ralph Oliver Graef and Dr Timo Rosenkranz in the current BLS magazine.

“Film Reform in Focus – the Diversity Advisory Board”. Our annual panel with Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein on the occasion of the Hamburg Film Festival was one of the liveliest and best events in recent years. Thank you for the great moderation and the strong opinions of all participants.

Press Release GRAEF Rechtsanwälte

Coverage on gala.de

It was nice. We’ll just have to turn off the rain next year.

What started 15 years ago as a small „indie conference“ is now a landmark event in the games industry. Thank you to our friends at Super Crowd GmbH and Gamecity Hamburg, Wolf Lang and Dennis Schoubye

Andthank you to all our speakers for their great speeches
Sophie Vo
Brjann Sigurgeirsson
James Batchelor
Odile Limpach
Torsten Oppermann

Last not least thank you Elisabeth Heinisch and Altonaer Museum

Welcome to our team, Philipp Steinhübl. We look forward to lively discussions on press law, media law and entertainment law. It’s going to be a cool journey.

FOCUS Spezial 2023 recommends GRAEF Rechtsanwälte as a top law firm in the area of “Media and Press”. Our firm was “disproportionately recommended by colleagues”.

When things get complicated in terms of press law, we’re there. For freedom of the press and freedom of opinion. For the general right of personality. It’s not about winning at any price, it’s about balancing both basic rights appropriately.

Read more on FAZ.net – FAZ article as PDF

Read more on Sueddeutsche.de – SZ article as PDF