CASE STATUS
On January 13, 2023, the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, Karla Ortiz, and a class of other artists and stakeholders against Stability AI Ltd.; Stability AI, Inc.; DeviantArt, Inc.; and Midjourney, Inc. This suit alleges copyright infringement, DMCA violations, right of publicity violations, breach of the DeviantArt Terms of Service, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment. It likewise seeks damages and injunctive relief to compensate the class for harms already incurred and to prevent future harms.
On July 12, 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property conducted a hearing—Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property-Part II: The Copyright—on the copyright issues intimately connected with this case. Plaintiff Karla Ortiz testified on behalf of artists whose creative work has been appropriated by image-generating AI products without permission or compensation. (Testimony occurs at 31:24, 59:54, 1:03:59, and 1:31:20.)
On May 7, 2024, the Court issued a tentative ruling to deny several of defendants’ motions to dismiss and allowed plaintiffs to proceed with discovery. A hearing on these motions was held on May 8, 2024. The Court’s final ruling is pending.
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