German publisher Carlsen files lawsuit against Open AI

Carlsen Verlag, Marc-Uwe Kling, and Astrid Henn believe their rights regarding the work "Das NEINhorn" (a play on words between the German for 'no' and 'unicorn') have been infringed upon.

As background to the lawsuit, Carlsen note that even the simplest prompts entered into ChatGPT result in the generation of stories about the "NEINhorn" for the user-stories that resemble the copyright-protected work by Marc-Uwe Kling and Astrid Henn in their essential creative elements. The illustrations generated by ChatGPT are virtually indistinguishable from the original "NEINhorn." On its own initiative, ChatGPT suggests further infringing texts and illustrations featuring the "NEINhorn," incorporating other characters and settings from the original work without any attribution. ChatGPT even offers complete print-ready layouts for illustrated stories, including cover designs, imprint details, a fake ISBN, and a publisher's logo.

Given the highly detailed nature of these copies, Carlsen believes that the original works from the "Das NEINhorn" series were used unlawfully to train OpenAI's language and image models and are now contained within these models as "memorized" data, making them accessible via ChatGPT at any time. This is demonstrated by the outputs generated during testing, which in themselves constitute an unlawful use. Marc-Uwe Kling, author of the "NEINhorn" books, comments: "Anyone who illegally downloads even a single film, book, or audiobook faces a severe penalty. Yet OpenAI simply steals art and culture from all over the world and thinks it can get away with it? The NEINhorn has only one word for that: 'No!'"

Astrid Henn, the illustrator of the NEINhorn books, also objected: "The unauthorized use of my illustrations-often the result of months of work-to train an AI with the aim of making my work (my property) available to everyone amounts to theft in my eyes. To me, this process is no different from, say, stealing trade secrets that are then sold on the darknet and made accessible to anyone."

Sandra Harzer-Kux, publisher at Carlsen Verlag, states: "The creativity of authors and illustrators is our most valuable asset; representing and protecting their rights is our responsibility as a publishing house. The NEINhorn and its sequels are among the most successful picture books on the market and have already become classics of children's literature. With this lawsuit, we are firmly standing up for the rights of Marc-Uwe Kling and Astrid Henn, as well as those of the publishing house-rights that are clearly being violated."

Christian Schumacher-Gebler, former IPA Executive Committee member and CEO of the German Bonnier Group, says: "Across our publishing houses, we are leveraging the new opportunities opened up to us by AI software providers in many areas. However, this does not mean we turn a blind eye when AI providers flagrantly violate the copyrights of our creative professionals as well as the rights of the publishers. It would seem almost bizarre-were the situation not so serious-that ChatGPT generates an imprint listing Marc-Uwe Kling for 'Text,' Astrid Henn for 'Illustrations,' and Carlsen Verlag GmbH for 'Copyright.' With this lawsuit, we are therefore calling on OpenAI to cease the unlicensed use of protected works, rectify any infringements, and assume full responsibility for unlawful actions-specifically, by compensating for the damage already incurred."

In other AI-related news from Germany, on 31 July 2026, the 42nd Civil Chamber of the Munich Regional Court largely upheld music collective management organisation GEMA's claims for injunctive relief, information and damages against Suno Inc, the provider of a music generator based on artificial intelligence. The judgment is not final. GEMA had argued that 6 musical works were reproduced during training, memorised in the model and reproduced again through the generated outputs. Suno extracted the works from YouTube using stream ripping techniques that circumvented a TPM against downloading.