Getty Images CEO Craig Peters told CNBC the company has already spent “millions and millions” on its lawsuit against Stability AI and cannot bankroll every new instance of AI-driven copying.
The flagship case alleges that Stable Diffusion was trained on more than 12 million Getty photographs without permission. The dispute is before the UK High Court and is widely viewed as a test of whether existing copyright law can survive the age of large-scale data mining.
Getty’s numbers tell the story. With roughly a billion dollars in annual revenue and decades of licensing expertise, it sits near the top of the global content food chain. If Getty concludes that enforcement costs outweigh potential damages, then local newspapers, freelance photographers and smaller stock libraries have no realistic avenue to defend their work. In practical terms, the fight over image scraping may be possible one lawsuit at a time.
That economic reality does not change the underlying grievance: unauthorized training transfers value from creators to model builders. The industry believes it needs three things: a standardized clearinghouse for per-asset AI licensing, machine-readable provenance tags embedded at capture, and statutory damages calibrated for infringement at machine scale. Policymakers are already circling the issue; the EU AI Act, for example, would require developers to disclose any copyrighted material used to train their models.
Getty’s admonition about the expense of the fight should not be mistaken for surrender. They will continue to fight, and I'm sure this is far from over. It is important to pay attention to this (and other big copyright cases); these lawsuits intersect with pending regulation in interesting ways and, taken together, will shape the future of AI-training.
One naive question (just for fun): What if the foundational models builders are already done training on pre-existing content?
As always your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.
