In the UK (and possibly the US), Getty Images is suing Stable Diffusion for scraping millions of images from its site. The CEO of Getty told the Verge that today’s legal landscape is comparable to the early days of digital music, when Napster offered popular but illegal services before deals were struck with license holders.
Separately, three artists have sued Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and art portfolio site DeviantArt for infringing on their rights by training the AI on their images without consent. Creators of AI tools are expected to plead fair use, but the situation is, of course, complicated. For more background, read TechCrunch.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
