A recent ruling by the High Court in the UK has delivered a mixed outcome in the conflict between Getty Images and Stability AI.
Although the court primarily sided with Stability AI, several crucial legal issues concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright remain unresolved.
The conflict began in 2023 when Getty Images accused Stability AI’s image-generating technology, known as Stable Diffusion, of using its copyrighted material without authorization.
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Additionally, Getty Images contended that Stable Diffusion had incorporated its watermark in some generated images, infringing on their trademark rights.
The court acknowledged that Getty Images’ watermark surfaced in certain outputs, but Judge Joanna Smith clarified that this particular point was minor and did not constitute infringement.
The strength of Getty Images’ case was diminished as they failed to demonstrate that anyone in the UK had actually utilized the software to create watermarked content.
Getty Images also claimed that the AI model itself constituted a copy of their images, potentially leading to secondary infringement. However, the court determined that since Stable Diffusion does not replicate the original images, it falls outside the legal definition of an “infringing copy” under the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
Justice Smith noted that despite the intangible nature of digital tools like AI models, they must still fulfill specific criteria to be deemed unlawful copies. In this instance, Stable Diffusion did not meet those criteria.
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