A Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed Against AI Art Generators Including Midjourney, Stability Ai, And DeviantArt

Tech

Jan 17

The advancement of AI has been a very popular subject as we move forward with that discussion, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT dominating the headlines and to a lesser extent the AI art generators. In the latest development, a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of plaintiffs in the United States District Court of the Northern District of California.

The lawsuit specifically targets Stable Diffusion, an artificial intelligence that was trained on billions of images under copyright in a dataset known as LAION-5B which included these images which were downloaded and used without permission or compensation. The lawsuit alleges “direct copyright infringement”, “vicarious copyright infringement related to forgeries, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)”, “violation of class members' rights of publicity”, “a breach of contract related to the DeviantArt Terms of Service”, and “various violations of California's unfair competition laws”.

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This could be a big case for determining the future of AI’s role in creative sectors since it targets companies using Stable Diffusion which include Stability AI, Midjourney, and most notably DeviantArt which is one of the biggest names in digital art. Lawyer and programmer Matthew Butterick had this to say, “AI needs to be fair and ethical for everyone, but Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt are appropriating the work of thousands of artists with no consent, no credit, and no compensation.”

DeviantArt is unique since it began in 2000 and has grown into a space for artists to share their work, only recently launching their DreamUp which is alleged to infringe on the copyrights of the very artists that built the site into what it is today. Joseph Saveri, founder of the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP who is representing the plaintiffs, “As burgeoning technology continues to change every aspect of the modern world, it's critical that we recognize and protect the rights of artists against unlawful theft and fraud.” Driving home the importance Saveri stated, “This case represents a larger fight for preserving ownership rights for all artists and other creators.”

This court case could be a huge signal of AI’s role in not just the art communities, but any creative endeavor from writing to music, to 3D mediums and we will make sure to keep an eye on any developments.

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