In a recent development, a UK court has authorized Getty Images to pursue legal action against Stability AI, allowing the case to advance to trial. The judicial proceedings took place within the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales under the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice.
(Photo : LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images)
This picture taken on April 26, 2023 in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows screens displaying the logo of Stable Diffusion, an articial intelligence application, created by stability.ai.
Legal Action Against Stability AI
A UK court has authorized the continuation of Getty Images' legal proceedings against Stability AI, the originator of Stable Diffusion, pushing the case towards a trial. The court decided on Friday to delve deeper into Getty's accusations of copyright infringement related to the use of its materials for training AI models.
As reported by The Verge, this signifies the acknowledgment of Getty's allegations regarding copyright infringement related to the utilization of its materials for training AI models, prompting further examination. Getty Images claims that Stability AI employed copyrighted image collection to train the Stable Diffusion model.
In response, Stability contested the authority of a UK court, asserting that none of the individuals engaged in the training or development of Stable Diffusion had UK affiliations. The company also maintained that AWS, a provider based in the United States, supplied the cloud computing resources used for training the model.
Doubting the Evidence
Expressing apprehensions, Justice Joanna Smith questioned the reliability of the evidence put forth by Stability AI and its Chief Executive Officer Emad Mostaque, highlighting that the evident disparities between his testimony and other available evidence introduce uncertainty regarding the credibility of his statements in a broader sense.
The court cited Mostaque's statements in the media, wherein he asserted that Stability played a role in accelerating the UK residency applications of Russian and Ukrainian developers actively contributing to the Stable Diffusion project.
Also Read: Getty Images Launches AI Image Generator in Response to Industry Challenges
UKTech reported that Stability AI's attempts to have the case dismissed were not fruitful. The argument presented was that the models were primarily trained in Munich, not in the UK, implying that the legal proceedings should not take place in a British court.
Mostaque expressed confidence that none of Stability's UK-based employees had been involved in the development or training of Stable Diffusion. However, the judge challenged this assertion, citing Mostaque's past statement about the facilitation of expedited visas for Ukrainian and Russian developers.
The judge deemed it necessary to investigate whether these developers played a role in creating the Stable Diffusion tool. Stability argued that the developers brought to the UK might have been engaged in other projects, but Justice Smith insisted that this matter should be resolved through a comprehensive trial.
Facing Several Setbacks
This legal dispute adds to the challenges faced by the British AI startup. Decrypt reported that the head of Stability AI's audio department, responsible for a music generation tool, resigned due to the company's stance on training models with copyrighted music under fair use laws.
Following this, two more senior executives also stepped down. Recent reports suggest that Stability is in talks with potential buyers in response to investor dissatisfaction with Mostaque's leadership. Despite this, Stability has asserted that it is not currently up for sale.
Related Article: Getty Images to Sue Stable Diffusion Developers Over Alleged Copyright Infringement
