It’s not going well for artists in their battle against GenAI
Earlier this week, a judge in California rejected some claims from artists in their battle against AI image-generating websites. The artists believe that such sites use their work unlawfully.
Parts of a class action filed by Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortiz were dismissed by U.S. District Judge William Orrick, including all allegations against DeviantArt and Midjourney, two popular text-to-image AI art generators.
However, despite some claims being dismissed and the offer to file an amended complaint, artist attorneys Joseph Saveri and Matthew Butterick confirmed that their “core claim” remained.
Artists claim that creators of generative AI images are using their copyrighted work
The case goes like this: “Plaintiffs allege that Stable Diffusion was “trained” on Plaintiffs’ artwork to produce Output Images “in the style” of certain artists.”
Orrick added: “Because I find that the complaint is defective in numerous respects, I largely grant Defendants’ motions to dismiss and defer the special motion to strike.”
The Oct. 30 hearing gave the plaintiffs 30 days to return with an amended complaint addressing “deficiencies” in their arguments, including the fact that some artworks were not registered with the Copyright Office.
Ny Breaking reached out to Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt for further comment on the lawsuit and allegations, but we did not receive an immediate response.
Orrick also rejected complaints that the companies in question had violated the artists’ publicity rights and competed unfairly with them. Once again, the claimants have been allowed to reapply within 30 days – by the end of November.
More broadly, copyright issues are expected to become more complex in an evolving AI landscape. Microsoft recently announced that it would defend users of its AI Copilot if they are “copyright challenged.”
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Through Reuters