Getty Images Loses Major Legal Battle Against Stability AI in Landmark Copyright Case

Getty Images, a prominent distributor of stock and news photos and videos, has experienced a significant setback in its legal battle against British artificial intelligence company Stability AI, as ruled by a London court on Tuesday.

The US media corporation had accused Stability AI, whose board includes renowned Canadian filmmaker James Cameron, of inappropriately extracting "millions" of images from Getty's websites "without consent" to train its advanced AI model called Stable Diffusion, which generates images based on text prompts.

Stability AI vigorously contested these allegations during the High Court proceedings that commenced in June, characterizing Getty's legal action as a "threat" to their operations.

Getty Images, which distributes stock photography and videos including AFP content, abandoned its primary copyright infringement claims during the trial but continued to pursue other allegations including trademark infringement and secondary copyright infringement.

In her 205-page judgment, Justice Joanna Smith noted that Getty acknowledged there was "no evidence that the training and development of Stable Diffusion took place in the United Kingdom," limiting what the court could determine in the "diminished" remaining case.

The court did find Stability AI responsible for a narrow aspect of trademark infringement—specifically for producing images displaying Getty's watermark or its subsidiary name "iStock." However, Judge Smith emphasized that these findings were "both historic and extremely limited in scope."

This ruling likely represents a significant blow to content creators and copyright holders worldwide, particularly during a period of uncertainty regarding fair compensation when AI systems utilize their work.

Getty expressed continued concern in a statement: "We remain deeply concerned that even well-funded companies like Getty Images face significant challenges in protecting their works. We call on governments, including the United Kingdom, to establish stricter transparency rules."

In response, Christian Dowell, General Counsel for Stability AI, expressed satisfaction with the court's decision, stating: "Getty's decision to voluntarily dismiss most of its copyright claims at the conclusion of trial testimony left only a subset of claims before the court, and this final ruling ultimately resolves the copyright concerns that were the core issue."