hypemoon.com Open in urlscan Pro
34.211.222.147  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

 * Cryptocurrency
 * NFT
 * Metaverse
 * Blockchain
 * Art
 * Rankings
 * Videos

 * 

Metaverse


A.I. GENERATED ART: THE BIGGEST LEGAL BATTLE OF THE YEAR OVER ALLEGED METADATA
THEFT


WITH TWO MAJOR LAWSUITS ALREADY UNDERWAY, INCLUDING A GETTY IMAGES INITIATED
SUIT, AND ANOTHER CLASS-ACTION AGAINST STABILITYAI, DEVIANTART, AND MIDJOURNEY
THAT PUTS “DIFFUSION-BASED IMAGE GENERATION MODELS” FRONT-AND-CENTER.

By Andrew Rossow
| 17 Hrs ago

POSTED

17 Hrs ago

TEXT BY

Andrew Rossow

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LinkTweetShareShareSendSendEmailSendPin

Scan the QR code to open the article on your device

More
Metaverse


A.I. GENERATED ART: THE BIGGEST LEGAL BATTLE OF THE YEAR OVER ALLEGED METADATA
THEFT


WITH TWO MAJOR LAWSUITS ALREADY UNDERWAY, INCLUDING A GETTY IMAGES INITIATED
SUIT, AND ANOTHER CLASS-ACTION AGAINST STABILITYAI, DEVIANTART, AND MIDJOURNEY
THAT PUTS “DIFFUSION-BASED IMAGE GENERATION MODELS” FRONT-AND-CENTER.

Getty Images

Surely over the past two months, you’ve come across a friend or colleague who at
some point  shared a jaw-dropping artistic rendition of themselves to their
Instagram/Facebook pages. 



When the popular app, Lensa AI, started climbing the App Store charts back in
late November 2022 because of its then-viral “magic avatars” feature,
conversations surrounding “A.I. Generated Art” began to circulate throughout the
tech and Web3 communities.

Having amassed around 22.2 million worldwide downloads and nearly $29 million
USD in consumer spending since its 2018 launch, Lensa added another 1.6 million
downloads to its U.S. based market as of November 2022.  

Back in December, Lensa updated its privacy policy, clarifying how user data is
supposedly used to “train” the company’s A.I.

With big tech including Microsoft, Adobe, and GitHub integrating generative A.I.
tech into their mainstream consumer products and services, conversations began
to circulate throughout the industry as to whether the mechanism by which the
art is generated was actually “legal.”

And as we are now coming to find out, there are some major red flags and legal
claims that are accompanying the use of these image generation technologies. 

Before diving into the pending litigation surrounding the A.I. generated art,
let’s start by breaking down our understanding of “diffusion models” which is
crucial to understanding how these A.I. generated art-based applications work. 


UNDERSTANDING “DIFFUSION MODELS”

While the Lensa AI app has been available since as early as 2018, the underlying
technology it, along with other apps, has either utilized and/or based its
technology from, is fairly new.

The ability to generate high-quality images from mere “text descriptions” is
anything but an easy task. It’s for this reason that “diffusion models” have
emerged over the years as a powerfully-equipped tool that helps address those
challenges. 

First introduced in a 2015 paper “Deep Unsupervised Learning using
Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics,” these models were pretty MIA until around 2020,
when another paper was published that explored these models more in-depth. 

Over the past few months, certain diffusion-based Image Generation models
emerged throughout 2022 that have quickly risen to popularity – Dall-E 2 by
OpenAI, Imagen by Google, Stable Diffusion by StabilityAI, and Midjourney. 

Founded in 2020, the London-based startup, StabilityAI, experienced what seemed
like overnight success after its public release of its “Stable Diffusion” model
in August 2022. 

In October, Stability AI raised $101 million USD in a seed round, led by Coatue
Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and O’Shaughnessy Ventures at a $1
billion USD valuation. 

Plainly speaking, these diffusion-based Image Generation models allow for a user
to provide short and simple text prompts that describe a particular
environmental scene, which the model then generates a high-quality image from. 

However, the diffusion models we need to pay closer attention to right now are
StabilityAI’s “Stable Diffusion,” DeviantArt’s “DreamUp,” and Midjourney – all
of which are currently the subject to a newly filed class-action lawsuit. 


CAN A.I. GENERATED ART BE “COPYRIGHTED?”

If you were to ask a handful of people their thoughts on whether or not
generative A.I. is “legal,” you will undoubtedly receive a mixed response of
some arguing that everything happening right now is ethical, while others argue
that these “trained” systems are committing copyright infringement and other
public policy violations that impact consumer privacy. 

The Verge published an interesting article that lays out a variety of
perspectives from a range of lawyers, analysts, and employees at AI startups
that is worth giving a read. 

Prisma Labs, the team behind Lensa AI, previously told TechCrunch in early
December that it used AWS cloud services to process users’ photos, and that as
soon as an A.I. model is trained on a particular user’s photos, those images are
immediately deleted. 

TechCrunch also reported at the time that Stable Diffusion was originally
trained on 2.3 billion captioned images.

However, as more users began sharing A.I. generated renditions of themselves to
social media, many illustrators and digital creatives began to express their
distaste for this “A.I. phenomenon” with claims that many of these images were
“stolen” from other watermarked and copyrighted works, including images that
were allegedly scrubbed from sites like Getty Images and Shutterstock. 


THE U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE GIVES EARLY WARNING FOR SUBMITTING A.I. GENERATED
WORKS

Back in September, the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) granted what is considered
to be a “first-of-its-kind” registration for a comic book that was generated
with Midjourney’s A.I.

However, a month later, Kristina Kashtanova, an artist and A.I. consultant,
received notice from the USCO that the previously granted registration for the
first issue of her partially A.I.-generated comic book, might be canceled. 

A November 2022 report from IPWatchdog revealed that the USCO had allegedly
asked Kashtanova for additional details on her process to show that there was
“substantial human involvement” in the process of the comic book’s creation. 

However, A.I. generated art has now presented both artists and our legal system
with two major questions that still haven’t been answered, but soon will be:

 * Can a generated work created by a trained A.I. actually be copyrighted?

 

 * Can copyright-protected data and/or works be used to train A.I. models like
   Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and others?

Remember, the U.S. Copyright Office isn’t a court of law, and therefore, cannot
weigh in on the legality of whether or not infringement has actually occurred
with works it has afforded protection to.


ARTISTS ARE NOW SUING STABILITYAI, DEVIANTART, AND MIDJOURNEY IN A CLASS-ACTION
LAWSUIT

On January 13, a class-action lawsuit was filed by Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP
and Matthew Butterick in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California on behalf of three artists – Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and
Karla Ortiz (as well as a class of other artists and stakeholders) against
StabilityAI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney. 

This is also the same team that previously filed a class-action lawsuit on
behalf of Github programmers against GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI for using
their code without permission to train Microsoft’s latest A.I. tool, GitHub
Copilot.

At the heart of what will arguably be one of the most crucial legal cases for
2023, is whether or not these diffusion-based image generation models by
StabilityAI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt  violate U.S. copyright laws, amongst
other privacy concerns.

The Complaint specifically alleges (1) copyright infringement, (2) DMCA
violations, (3) right of publicity violations, (4) breach of the DeviantArt
Terms of Service, (5) unfair competition, and (6) unjust enrichment. 

It is the Plaintiff’s belief that Stable Diffusion, as well as other
image-generating A.I. products, “could not exist without the work of painters,
illustrators, photographers, sculptors, and other artists” – and the dataset
upon which Stable Diffusion was trained on – LAI0N-5B – contains close to 6
billion image-text pairs, most of which are copyrighted images. 

According to attorney Joseph Saveri, this newly filed case represents a much
larger fight by artists and creators to preserve ownership rights in their work
and to challenge these text-to-image A.I. tools that many believe to be actively
infringing upon the rights of thousands of artists and other creatives. 

> “AI needs to be fair and ethical for everyone,” said lawyer/programmer Matthew
> Butterick in the law firm’s press release. He claims that StabilityAI’s
> “Stable Diffusion,” Midjourney, and DeviantArt’s “DreamUp” are appropriating
> the work of thousands of artists with no consent, no credit, and no
> compensation.”

The press release continued by emphasizing that if models like Stable Diffusion
and other similar products are allowed to continue operating without any
interference, a very dangerous precedent could be set when it comes to replacing
the actual artists whose stolen works “power these A.I. products” with whom they
are competing. 


GETTY IMAGES IS ALSO MAKING ITS VOICE HEARD IN ITS NEWLY FILED LAWSUIT

Shortly after Butterick and Saveri’s class-action lawsuit was filed, Getty
Images also announced that it would be suing StabilityAI over copyright
violations, claiming that the company did not seek nor obtain any licenses from
Getty Images and merely “copied and processed millions of images…and metadata”
protected by copyright from its platform. 

> “It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and
> processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated
> metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit
> Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content
> creators,” the January 17 press release reads. 

Getty also emphasized that while it believes that A.I. has the potential to
stimulate creative endeavors, it also provided licenses to leading technology
innovators for purposes specifically related to “training artificial
intelligence systems” in a manner that doesn’t violate IP rights. 


WHAT SHOULD YOU BE LOOKING FOR?

Ultimately, these lawsuits represent a growing concern from creatives (artists,
programmers, developers) and media companies to preserve the integrity of IP
rights in emerging technologies, such as A.I. that is beginning to shape the
nascent foundations of the Web3 space. 

At the end of the day, the criteria associated with what is considered to be
“copyrightable” in our digital age, along with how far the “fair use” doctrine
under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will finally be put to the
test for our courts to decide. 

In other news, read about the FTC’s “11th Hour” Emergency Motion asking a
federal court to pause the acquisition deal between Meta and Within Unlimited.


Getty Imageslegalvirtual realityArtificial Intelligenceai generated artStability
AIMidjourneyDeviant Art





YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Metaverse


WORLD OF WOMEN UNVEILS CAPACITORS: A PORTAL INTO THE WOWVERSE

Giving life to the project’s PFPs with a customizable metaverse for holders to
discover their unique digital identities.
By HB Team
|Aug 30, 2022
Cryptocurrency


2022 YEAR IN REVIEW: CRYPTO IN THE COURT

From Sam Bankman-Fried’s indictment and Yuga Labs’ ongoing celebrity endorsement
class-action lawsuit to the U.S. DOJ, SEC, and CFTC finally waking up to calls
for accountability and justice.
By HB Team
|Jan 1, 2023
Art


INTRODUCING QQL, A GENERATIVE ART PROJECT BY TYLER HOBBS AND DANDELION WIST

With a focus on co-creation and curation by collectors.
By HB Team
|Sep 19, 2022

Art


BEEPLE AND HENI TO RELEASE ART BOOK EXPLORING EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS

The record-breaking NFT that sold for over $69 million USD at Christie’s and
acted as a catalyst to the current digital art renaissance.
By HB Team
|1 day ago
NFT


STEVE AOKI AND SETH GREEN INVITE FANS TO CO-CREATE NEW WEB3 PROJECT

Replicant X aims to push the boundaries of Web3 storytelling, placing a priority
on holder input and creativity.
By HB Team
|23 Hrs ago
Art


BEEPLE AND HENI TO RELEASE ART BOOK EXPLORING EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS

The record-breaking NFT that sold for over $69 million USD at Christie’s and
acted as a catalyst to the current digital art renaissance.
By HB Team
|1 day ago
Cryptocurrency


BINANCE AND MASTERCARD PARTNER TO BRING CRYPTO CARD TO BRAZIL

Making it the second Latin American country to adopt crypto cards and one of the
many globally.
By HB Team
|Feb 1, 2023
Metaverse


FTC FILES “11TH HOUR” EMERGENCY MOTION ASKING COURT TO PAUSE META-WITHIN
ACQUISITION DEAL

In the final hours of the FTC’s temporary restraining order that is set to
expire Tuesday night, which has prevented both parties from moving forward with
the acquisition deal.
By HB Team
|Jan 31, 2023
NFT


PREMIER LEAGUE NFTS TO TAKE THE FIELD THANKS TO SORARE PARTNERSHIP

Unlocking new rewards and experiences for both paid and free-to-play
participants.
By HB Team
|Jan 31, 2023


Metaverse


DISNEY CELEBRATES 100 YEARS WITH IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE IN LONDON

Featuring several virtual and augmented reality activations.
By HB Team
|Jan 31, 2023
NFT


AZUKI HACK RESULTS IN OVER $750K USD IN STOLEN FUNDS

Serving as yet another example of why users should proceed with caution and use
security tools.
By HB Team
|Jan 30, 2023
Blockchain


UNISWAP TAKES HOME THE TROPHY IN CLOSE FINAL ROUND OF 0XMONACO

A blockchain-based game created for developers to showcase their skills.
By HB Team
|Jan 30, 2023
Metaverse


GOOGLE’S NEW AI SYSTEM MUSICLM CAN CREATE HUMAN-LIKE SONGS

With its system being trained on over 28,000 hours of music and it can produce
complex high-fidelity compositions.
By HB Team
|Jan 30, 2023
NFT


LG ELECTRONICS AND JEREMY FALL TO LAUNCH COLLABORATIVE NFT COLLECTION

Titled [counter] culture, the collection is meant to represent the intersection
of modern culture through time, diamonds, and the blockchain.
By HB Team
|Jan 27, 2023
More ▾

A.I. Generated Art: The Biggest Legal Battle of the Year Over Alleged Metadata
Theft



 * Follow
    * 
    * 

 * Sections
    * NFT
    * Cryptocurrency
    * Metaverse
    * Blockchain

 * Store
    * Men
    * Women
    * Life
    * Archives
    * Drops
    * Sale

 * Elsewhere
    * Hypebeast
    * HypeArt
    * Hypemoon
    * Hypebae
    * HBX

 * Hypebeast Ltd.
    * About Us
    * Corporate News
    * Investor Relations
    * Contact Us
    * Advertising
    * Jobs
    * Hypemaker
    * HypeCapital

2023 Hypebeast Limited. All Rights Reserved.Hypemoon® is a registered trademark
of Hypebeast Hong Kong Ltd.Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy|Investment
Disclaimer

 * HOME

 * CRYPTOCURRENCY

 * NFT

 * METAVERSE

 * BLOCKCHAIN

 * ART

 * RANKINGS
   
   
   Top NFT Projects
   Top Cryptocurrencies

 * VIDEOS

 * MORE
   
   
   About Us
   Contact Us
   Jobs
   Advertise
   Investor Relations
    

 * ELSEWHERE
   
   
   
   HYPEBEAST
   
   Men's streetwear and contemporary culture
   
   
   
   HYPEART
   
   The latest in street and contemporary art
   
   
   
   HYPEMOON
   
   Your Portal Into Web3 Culture
   
   
   
   HYPEBAE
   
   Women's streetwear and contemporary culture
   
   
   
   HBX
   
   Shop the latest drops for Men's and Women's

 * FOLLOW HYPEMOON
   
   

2023 Hypebeast Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy

Hypebeast® is a registered trademark of Hypebeast Hong Kong Ltd.