Getty Images drops ‘key argument’ in its live trial against Stability AI
Two weeks into the closely watched trial, Getty Images has dropped its claims for primary copyright infringement against the British AI image generator company.
Online stock pictures library giant Getty Images sued Stability AI, alleging that its intellectual property rights were infringed by the group’s tool, Stable Diffusion.
The tool, which automatically generates images based on text or image prompts, was accused of using copyrighted images to train it.
Stability AI denies the claims.
This case is the first concerning a generative AI developer to have reached a trial in the English High Court.
The parties appeared before Mrs Justice Joanna Smith earlier this month; however, it was revealed on Wednesday that Getty Images had dropped one of its arguments.
The High Court confirmed that Getty has dropped its claims for primary copyright infringement.
Ben Maling, partner at EIP, explained: “Both about Stability AI’s training models on Getty images in the UK, and about outputs of Stability’s models reproducing a substantial part of Getty images in the UK.”
“The training claim has likely been dropped due to Getty failing to establish a sufficient connection between the infringing acts and the UK jurisdiction for copyright law to bite.”
As he added: “The output claim has likely been dropped due to Getty failing to establish that what the models reproduced reflects a substantial part of what was created in the images.”
The argument that remains is Getty Images’ secondary infringement claim, along with trademark infringement and passing off.
Stability AI said in a media statement the company was pleased with “Getty’s decision to drop multiple claims”.
“We are grateful for the time and effort the UK court has put forth to address the important matters in this case. We look forward to the court’s final judgment,” the spokesperson added.