Getty Images has dropped a key part of its legal action against a UK-based artificial intelligence firm over alleged copyright infringement. The visual content company, based in the United States, was suing Stability AI Limited at the High Court, claiming it scraped millions of images from Getty’s websites without consent to unlawfully train its deep learning AI model, Stable Diffusion.
The landmark case has been closely watched by the creative and technology industries. Getty made the “pragmatic decision” to drop the copyright infringement allegations, and “pursue only the claims for trade mark infringement, passing off and secondary infringement of copyright,” according to a written copy of its closing arguments submitted on Wednesday.
But the company continues to accuse Stability of infringing its trademark and indirectly infringing its copyright. London-based Stability AI opposed the copyright claim, which it told the court represented “an overt threat” to its business.
A spokesperson for the company said: “We are pleased to see Getty’s decision to drop multiple claims after the conclusion of testimony. 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.”
In a judgment in May concerning preliminary matters before the trial, Mrs Justice Joanna Smith said that the case was “highly complex and technical” and raised “numerous novel issues for consideration by the court”. She added that the court had had to “devote unprecedented amounts of court time” to deal with the case.
In June, Lindsay Lane KC, for Getty, told the court the company “recognises that the AI industry overall may be a force for good”, but that did not justify AI companies “riding roughshod over intellectual property rights”. Ms Lane told the court Stability “did not care” if it used works that were copyrighted, had watermarks or if they “were not suitable for work or pornographic”.
Hugo Cuddigan KC, for Stability AI, said in written submissions that the case concerns “an issue of real societal significance” related to AI technology and copyright law, adding that Getty “appear to see generative AI as an existential threat”. A written decision from the judge is expected at a later date.
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