A group of artists can continue to pursue some claims that Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt, and Runway AI's artificial intelligence-based image generation systems infringe their copyrights, a California federal judge has ruled.
US District Judge William Orrick said the artists had plausibly argued that the companies violated their rights by illegally storing their works on their systems.
Orrick also refused to dismiss related trademark-law claims, although he dismissed others accusing the companies of unjust enrichment, breach of contract and violation of a separate US copyright law.
The decision did not address the artists' core claim that the alleged misuse of their work to train AI systems directly infringes their copyrights, or the key defence that AI companies make fair use of copyrighted material.
The artists' solicitors, Joseph Saveri and Matthew Butterick, said in a statement that the decision was "a significant step forward for the case."
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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