A Lawsuit Brought by Artists Against A.I. Companies Adds New Plaintiffs

Dec 13, 2023 ·

Lawyers representing a group of artists have filed an amended complaint in a lawsuit targeting several major AI companies, after U.S. District Judge John Koeltl dismissed some of their claims earlier this month. The original lawsuit, first filed in November 2020, accused the companies of copyright infringement based on the use of artists’ work in developing and training AI-generated models. The plaintiffs are now attempting to reinstate those claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The lawsuit, which was brought by seven individual artists, alleges that Microsoft, IBM, Clarifai, Amazon, and Kairos violated the copyright of the plaintiffs’ work by using it without permission or compensating them for it. They further allege that the companies infringed upon their rights by providing AI models trained on their images to third-party companies without obtaining licenses.

In his ruling, Judge Koeltl held that the plaintiff’s claims against the defendants should be dismissed because the plaintiffs failed to show that they had any ownership over their works. He also noted that the “assertion that the claimants own the copyrights to all of the approximately 1,400 images fails as a matter of law.”

In response, the plaintiff’s lawyers have now filed an amended complaint with the court that seeks to reinstate their claims under the DMCA. They allege that the defendants are liable for copyright infringement when they distribute the AI models without obtaining a license from the copyright holders. Additionally, they argue that the defendants should be held responsible for failing to remove the infringing works from their services once they were notified of the infringement.

The outcome of the case will be closely watched in the art community, as it could set a precedent for how AI companies should handle the use of copyrighted material. It will also be an important development in the ongoing legal battle surrounding the use of AI and its implications for copyright law.