Recently, the UK High Court made a significant ruling in the copyright case between Getty Images and Stability AI, determining that Stable Diffusion does not constitute "infringing copies." The core issue of this case was whether using copyrighted images to train an AI model constitutes copyright infringement.

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Getty Images accused Stability AI of "scraping" millions of its copyrighted photographs during the training of Stable Diffusion, claiming this action posed a "threat to the creative industry." However, as the case progressed, Getty eventually dropped its main allegations, including those related to the model's training method and the generated images.

According to court documents, evidence showed that the model training did not take place in the UK, shifting the focus of the case to secondary copyright and trademark infringement. The court ultimately ruled that AI models like Stable Diffusion do not constitute "infringing copies." Getty Images argued that if the model weights were created in the UK, it would constitute copyright infringement, but Judge Joanna Smith disagreed.

The judge stated in the ruling that Stable Diffusion does not store or reproduce any copyrighted works, and therefore, under the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA), it is not considered an "infringing copy." Although the law can cover intangible objects as "articles," Getty's argument did not hold.

Regarding trademarks, Getty achieved a small victory in certain cases. The court found that some older versions of Stable Diffusion might include watermarks similar to those of Getty or iStock when generating images. However, the judge clearly stated that this situation was limited to specific image examples, and "it is unclear how many (or to what extent) such watermarks would be generated in practice." Additionally, the court rejected Getty's claim of reputational harm, finding no basis for additional compensation.

Key Points:

🌟 Stable Diffusion is not considered an "infringing copy" because it does not store or reproduce any copyrighted works.  

⚖️ Getty Images achieved a small win on trademark issues, but its claim of reputational damage was dismissed.  

🔍 The case focused on whether AI model training constitutes copyright infringement, and the court ultimately supported Stability AI's position.