Getty Images has dropped two of the three claims it was making against Stability AI in the UK copyright sphere, as noted in this great Taylorwessing.com article, however, its third claim of secondary infringement remains. The article notes that “Getty’s allegation is that Stability has imported an article which is – and which Stability knows or has reason to believe is – an infringing copy of Getty’s copyright works contrary to section 22 of the CDPA”. Yes, that is a bit of a UK legal deep dive at the end, but if found liable, Stability AI’s product might be deemed illegal to supply (in this case the downloadable version and not the web version).
Here is the main kicker though: Because there is no clear international laws related to IP and infringement, but more laws by country, and as we know many countries not giving a sh!t about IP and piracy and being harbor states, any rulings apply only to items, in this case, hosted in the UK. Oh, you are hosted elsewhere? Then that country’s laws apply. This is the corporate loophole that has been used time and again for piracy or tax avoidance or extradition or any number of clearly illegal acts that some country decides to ignore because … truthfully, I don’t know why. Because they are @$$holes nihilists? I don’t know. They suck.
PS Featured AI image “Create a creative image that embodies the phrase “Getty Vs Stability”” brought to you by being quite apropos because both boxers are essentially copies of each other. Likely by accident because the Gen AI has no actual human creativity.
