Getty Images has filed a legal case against Stability AI over alleged copyright violation.
Stability AI has received a letter before action – a formal notification of impending litigation in the UK. The claim, outlined in a press statement is that Stability AI “unlawfully copied and processed (or “scraped”) millions of images protected by copyright” to train its software..
“The driver of that [letter] is Stability AI’s use of intellectual property of others — absent permission or consideration — to build a commercial offering of their own financial benefit. We don’t believe this specific deployment of Stability’s commercial offering is covered by fair dealing in the UK or fair use in the US. The company made no outreach to Getty Images to utilize our or our contributors’ material so we’re taking an action to protect our and our contributors’ intellectual property rights.”
Craig Peters, CEO, Getty Images
An independent analysis of Stable Diffusion’s training dataset shows that it has lifted a lot from Getty Images and other stock image sites,. Like the other AI firms, Stability AI claims this practice is covered by laws like the US fair use doctrine. Though they deny they are doing anything illegal or that could damage the rights holders’ income they are taking steps to make them happier.
Legal experts are generally divided on the issue. Getty Images CEO Craig Peters likens the current situation to the early days of digital music and the existence of services such as Napster.
Source: The Verge
Image source: Wikimedia Commons