Posted Tuesday 24th January 2023
AI is becoming increasingly powerful, no more so than in the forthcoming case between Getty Images and Stability AI. Getty Images is alleging copyright infringement against Stability AI.
Stability AI, maker of a free image generating tool, is alleged to have unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright. Getty Images, although not entertaining any AI generated images on its platform, does license its data to other AI companies for training. Text-to-image AI models are essentially trained by extracting millions of images from the internet such as from stock image archives. Training data teaches algorithms to identify different styles and patterns such as impressionism.
The nub of the issue before the court is whether such a wide use of images created by human endeavour should be an exception under UK copyright laws. For the creative industries, they allege that this would be allowing an image which they had created, to be taken, and potentially sold to competitors for large sums. The decision in this case and how the Court treads the line between avoiding a massively disincentivised creative industry and allowing AI to develop and provide more flexibility to tech companies, will be landmark. It will undoubtedly have serious implications, not just here in the UK but in the EU as well.
Watch this space for further developments…….
This article is for reference purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Specific legal advice about your specific circumstances should always be sought separately before taking or deciding not to take any action.
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