According to Fast Company, Stability AI largely won its UK High Court battle against Getty Images, which had accused the company of scraping 12 million images from its website without permission to train Stable Diffusion. The closely watched case represents one of the first major rulings in a wave of generative AI copyright lawsuits. Tech companies have consistently argued that “fair dealing” legal doctrines in the UK allow them to train AI systems on large collections of copyrighted works. Tuesday’s ruling provides some clarity but still leaves significant unanswered questions about copyright and AI according to legal experts.
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What This Really Means
Look, this feels like a pretty big deal for AI companies. But here’s the thing – “largely won” doesn’t mean “completely won.” The court likely dismissed most of Getty’s claims, but we don’t know the full reasoning yet. And that’s the problem with these early rulings – they’re setting precedents without giving us the complete picture.
Basically, Stability AI just got a major validation of their “fair dealing” argument in the UK. But let’s be real – this is just one battle in what’s going to be a very long war. Getty Images isn’t going to just pack up and go home. They’ll probably appeal, and there are still active lawsuits in the US where the legal landscape is different.
The Bigger Picture
So what happens now? Well, every other AI company training on scraped data just got a bit more breathing room. But here’s my question: when does “fair dealing” stop being fair? If you’re scraping 12 million images from a single source, that starts to feel less like research and more like commercial exploitation.
And let’s not forget – this ruling only addresses the training phase. What about when these systems generate content that looks suspiciously similar to copyrighted works? That’s a whole different legal minefield that nobody’s really figured out yet. The courts are basically building the plane while it’s flying.
What’s Next
I think we’re going to see a lot more of these cases, and they’re not all going to go the same way. Different countries have different copyright laws, and judges have different interpretations. It’s going to be messy for years.
The real question is whether this pushes companies toward licensing deals rather than just scraping everything. Some are already going that route, but it’s expensive. For now, Stability AI can celebrate a win, but the fight over AI and copyright is far from over. If anything, it’s just getting started.
