on Toshareproject.it - curated by Bruce Sterling
*That seems newsworthy. I wonder if it will work.
*I won’t be surprised if the legal results of this action are entirely different from anything expected by the people involved.
https://stablediffusionlitigation.com/
Hello. This is Matthew Butterick. I’m a writer, designer, programmer, and lawyer. In November 2022, I teamed up with the amazingly excellent class-action litigators Joseph Saveri, Cadio Zirpoli, and Travis Manfredi at the Joseph Saveri Law Firm to file a lawsuit against GitHub Copilot for its “unprecedented open-source software piracy”. (That lawsuit is still in progress.)
Since then, we’ve heard from people all over the world—especially writers, artists, programmers, and other creators—who are concerned about AI systems being trained on vast amounts of copyrighted work with no consent, no credit, and no compensation.
Today, we’re taking another step toward making AI fair & ethical for everyone. On behalf of three wonderful artist plaintiffs—Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz—we’ve filed a class-action lawsuit against Stability AI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney for their use of Stable Diffusion, a 21st-century collage tool that remixes the copyrighted works of millions of artists whose work was used as training data.
Joining as co-counsel are the terrific litigators Brian Clark and Laura Matson of Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P.
Today’s filings:
Class-action complaint
Class-action complaint: Exhibits
As a lawyer who is also a longtime member of the visual-arts community, it’s an honor to stand up on behalf of fellow artists and continue this vital conversation about how AI will coexist with human culture and creativity.
The image-generator companies have made their views clear.
Now they can hear from artists….