3 Count: Getty Joins the Fight

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1: Getty Images is Suing an AI Image Generator for Copyright Infringement

First off today, Leigh Mc Gowran at Silicon Republic reports that stock image site Getty Images has filed a lawsuit against Stability AI over alleged copyright infringement of their library of images.

According to Getty, Stability AI unlawfully trained their text-to-image generator AI, Stable Diffusion, using images scraped from Getty’s site. As proof of this, Getty provided images produced by Stable Diffusion that seemingly recreate the Getty Images watermark on them.

The lawsuit joins a class action one filed against Stability AI and others that use Stable Diffusion over the training of the system. Getty itself has a long history of taking a stand against AI images, issuing a ban on AI on its own service in September of last year.

2: Court Denies RIAA’s $250,000 Attorney Fees Request Against Yout

Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that a judge has denied attorneys fees to the RIAA, at least for the moment, in their long-running dispute with Yout.

The lawsuit was actually filed by Yout after the RIAA used takedown notices to remove links to their site from Google search results. Yout, a YouTube ripping site, alleged that it was not breaking any laws but failed to convince a judge that it wasn’t circumventing copyright protection on YouTube, handing the win to the RIAA.

The RIAA asked for $250,000 in attorneys fees, but the judge has denied that request, saying that such an immediate payment would hamper Yout’s ability to appeal. However, the judge left the door open for the RIAA to refile the request after the appeal is concluded.

3: Bored Ape Yacht Club Says That it Doesn’t Own Formal Copyright for its NFT Collection

Finally today, Jacob Seitz at The Daily Dot reports that Yuga Labs, the creators behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NIFTs, have disclosed in a court filing that they do not hold the copyright registration to the images that adorned their NFTs but claim to still hold the trademark.

Yuga labs filed the lawsuit against Ryder Ripps after Ripps created NFTs in a similar style to the Bored Ape ones. According to Ripps, his works were meant to parody. However, any copyright element of the case has been shot down as Yuga has admitted that it doesn’t hold copyright in the works.

Though copyright protection exists immediately after it is created, under US law, Yuga Labs cannot sue for copyright infringement unless they have first registered the works with the US Copyright Office, something they still have not done. As such, they are making it clear that the case will be decided on the merits of the trademark claims.

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