Recently, Getty Images announced in the High Court of London that it had withdrawn its main copyright infringement claims against Stability AI, further narrowing the focus of this closely watched legal battle. The core of this lawsuit revolves around how AI companies use copyrighted content to train their models.
Image source note: The image is AI-generated, and the image licensing service is Midjourney.
Although Getty Images' dismissal did not end the case, the company is still pursuing other charges and has filed an independent lawsuit in the United States. This development highlights the ambiguous territory between content ownership and usage rights in the era of generative AI. Additionally, this news comes as a U.S. judge supported AI company Anthropic in a similar dispute, stating that training AI on books without the author's permission does not violate copyright law.
Getty Images sued Stability AI in January 2023, claiming that the latter used millions of copyrighted images without authorization to train its AI model. Getty also stated that many works generated by Stable Diffusion were similar to its copyrighted content, and some even bore its watermark. In this round of allegations, Getty Images has withdrawn the training and output claims.
Legal experts suggest that Getty Images may have abandoned the training claim due to its failure to prove the connection between the alleged infringement and UK copyright law, while the output claim was dismissed because it could not prove that the generated content constituted a substantial part of its images. In Getty Images' closing arguments, the company's lawyer stated that the withdrawal of these claims was due to insufficient evidence and the lack of informed witnesses from Stability AI, aiming to focus the case on more viable claims.
Getty Images retains content including secondary infringement claims and trademark infringement claims. The secondary infringement claim mainly argues that the AI model itself may infringe on copyright law, and using these models in the UK may constitute the importation of infringing products, even if the training was conducted outside the UK.
Stability AI responded that they were pleased with Getty Images' withdrawal of multiple claims and believe that Getty Images' trademark and false advertising claims will not hold up, as consumers would not view the watermark as commercial information from Stability AI.
In the United States, Getty Images also filed a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, with potential damages of up to $1.7 billion. A spokesperson for Getty Images said that the withdrawal of the copyright lawsuit in the UK does not affect the progress of the case in the United States.
Notably, Getty Images has also launched its own generative AI tool, using an AI model trained on its iStock photo and video library to generate new licensed images and artworks.
Key Points:
📸 Getty Images has withdrawn its main copyright infringement claims against Stability AI but continues to pursue other charges and the US case.
🧑⚖️ Legal experts analyze that the withdrawal of the claims may be related to insufficient evidence and lack of informed witnesses.
💰 Getty Images' lawsuit in the United States could seek damages of up to $1.7 billion, and the case is still ongoing.
