Saad Ullah
● The High Court of Justice in England and Wales delivered a landmark ruling on November 4, 2025, in the Getty Images v Stability AI case. According to KolTregaskes, the decision represents a major win for AI developers.
● Judge Mrs Justice Joanna Smith dismissed Getty's main copyright infringement claims, finding that Stable Diffusion doesn't reproduce or store copyrighted material in its model weights or outputs. The court concluded that AI models learn statistical patterns rather than copying literal content, meaning the training process itself doesn't violate copyright law under the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Technollama (Andres Guadamuz) called the decision "a balanced and pragmatic reading of copyright in the age of artificial intelligence."
● The only findings against Stability AI involved synthetic Getty-style watermarks that appeared in older versions of the model (v1.x and v2.1). The court ruled these could potentially cause confusion, though it rejected broader claims about reputational damage. Importantly, Stability AI was only held responsible for releases on its own platforms, not open-source versions hosted elsewhere.
● The ruling draws a clear line between learning from data and copying it.
● With most claims dismissed and only minor trademark concerns upheld, the verdict provides much-needed legal clarity for companies developing generative AI models and could influence regulators and courts worldwide.
Saad Ullah
