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Copyright: Intellectual property rights are legal rights that protect creative works and inventions.
These rights include patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Patents protect inventions and discoveries.
Copyrights protect creative works such as literature, music, and art.
Trademarks protect brand names and logos, and trade secrets protect confidential business information.
These rights give creators and inventors control over how their work is used and can prevent others from using it without permission.
Midjourney AI has ignored these intellectual rights, despite their importance, leading to a new lawsuit.
The news
A group of artists has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
They are charging DeviantArt, Midjourney, and Stability AI for alleged infringement of artists’ copyright in the creation of AI art.
Joseph Saveri Law Firm LLP, Matthew Butterick, and Lockridge, Grindal, Nauen PLLP represent the artists.
“As burgeoning technology continues to change every aspect of the modern world, it’s critical that we recognize and protect the rights of artists against unlawful theft and fraud,” said Joseph Saveri.
“This case represents a larger fight for preserving ownership rights for all artists and other creators.”
The lawsuit
According to the lawsuit, all involved artists seek compensation for the damages DeviantArt, Midjourney, and Stability AI caused.
The goal of the lawsuit is to prevent future harm.
Matthew Butterick wrote a post about the case, saying that the three companies are targeted by writers, artists, programmers, and other creators.
Most of the plaintiffs are concerned about using AI systems to be trained on a plethora of copyrighted work without consent, credit, and compensation.
The lawsuit not only seeks damages for violations but also seeks an injunction to avoid future problems.
Artist Karla Ortiz shared his excitement about the lawsuit on Twitter, saying:
“I am proud to be one of the plaintiffs for this class action suit. I am proud to do this with fellow peers, that we’ll give a voice to potentially thousands of affected artists.”
“I’m proud that now we fight for our rights not just in the public sphere but in the courts.”
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The connection between the companies
While DeviantArt, Midjourney, and Stability AI are different companies, they all use Stable Diffusion.
Stable Diffusion is an AI product based on the billion images in the LAION-5B dataset.
According to the lawsuit, it was created with the involvement of billions of copyrighted images.
It also alleges that the images lead to the following:
- Direct copyright infringement
- Vicarious copyright infringement related to forgeries
- Violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- Violation of class members’ rights to publicity
- Breach of contract pertaining to the DeviantArt Terms of Service
Importance of copyright in art
Intellectual property rights, particularly copyright, are crucial for visual artists who create paintings and digital illustrations.
Copyright gives the artist exclusive rights to control how their works are used, which includes the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works.
This means that others cannot use the artist’s work without their permission, including reproducing it, selling copies of it, or using it in other works without the artist’s consent.
These rights are essential for visual artists as they allow them to protect and monetize their work.
Without copyright, others could quickly reproduce and sell copies of an artist’s work without providing any compensation to the artist.
This would make it difficult for visual artists to make a living from their work.
Copyright allows visual artists to control how their work is used and presented.
They can choose to license their work for specific uses, such as for commercial use in advertising or film, and can set terms for how the work is used.
This allows artists to ensure that their work is used in a way that aligns with their vision and values.
In the digital age, copyrights are even more important for visual artists working with digital illustrations and paintings.
With the ease of reproducing and distributing digital files, it’s even more critical for visual artists to control how their work is used, distributed and monetized.
In summary, intellectual property rights, particularly copyright, are essential for visual artists as they allow them to protect and monetize their work and control how it is used.
It is essential for artists to make a living from their work and ensure that it is used in a way that aligns with their vision and values.
References:
DeviantArt, Midjourney face lawsuit for using ‘billions of copyrighted’ images in AI art
