The court dismisses a class action lawsuit by artists who claim that their copyrights were infringed by the image generation AI ``Stable Diffusion'' and ``Midjourney.''

The development of image generation AI that can generate desired images simply by inputting text and reference images is progressing rapidly, but there are concerns that image generation AI may be infringing on the copyrights of human artists. '', and several lawsuits focusing on copyright have been filed. Meanwhile, a court in the Northern California District has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.

AI COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT mtdruling.pdf
(PDF file) https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/byprrngynpe/AI%20COPYRIGHT%20LAWSUIT%20mtdruling.pdf

Judge pares down artists' AI copyright lawsuit against Midjourney, Stability AI | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/judge-pares-down-artists-ai-copyright-lawsuit-against-midjourney-stability-ai-2023-10-30/

Image generation AI such as Stable Diffusion is developed using a dataset that collects a huge amount of images existing on the Internet. For this reason, there are many opinions about image generation AI that ``images are collected and used for learning without obtaining permission from the creator.''

In addition, developers of image datasets use image posting services as a collection source, but they also complain that the image posting services do not have measures in place for image collection by AI, and that ``a large number of AI-generated images There have been negative comments such as, ``human artists are being effectively shut out.''

In January 2023, several artists announced that ``Stable Diffusion and Midjourney were developed using images collected without the consent of the copyright holder, and they are also offering paid services.'' “The image posting service DeviantArt not only failed to protect artists from image collection by AI developers, but also launched a paid service called DreamUp that uses Stable Diffusion. A class action lawsuit was filed against the three companies that provide these products: Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt.

A class action lawsuit will be filed against image generation AI 'Stable Diffusion' and 'Midjourney' - GIGAZINE

However, the class action lawsuit was dismissed by Northern California Court Judge William Orrick on October 30, 2023.

In his ruling, Orrick states, ``'All images used in Stable Diffusion training are protected by copyright,' and 'all generated images are therefore considered derivative works.' Plaintiff's claims are simply false.' Furthermore, Orrick said that even if the issue is limited to 'images generated using model data trained using copyrighted images,' 'we cannot be sure that copyright extends to generated images.' says.

Mr. Orrick has amended his complaint to allow him to continue pursuing the matter.

You can check whether your work is used as training data for image generation AI using tools such as 'Have I Been Trained?' In addition, the AI research project `` Knowing Machines '' cites `` sending a deletion request based on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) '' as an effective means to have your work deleted from learning data.

``Have I Been Trained?'' that allows you to search whether your work has been used without permission by image generation AI - GIGAZINE