Italian Court Upholds Copyright for Digital Art, AI Authorship Question Unresolved
On January 16, 2023, Italy's Court of Cassation issued ruling No. 1107, affirming the copyright of "The Scent of the Night," a digital piece created by a Genoese architect, which RAI had used without permission during the 2016 Sanremo Festival. The court determined that the artwork met the criteria for creativity under Italian law, countering RAI's claim that it lacked protection because it was produced by software. However, the Cassation did not resolve the question of whether works generated by AI qualify as human creative endeavors due to procedural constraints. In a related matter, Getty Images has filed a lawsuit against Stability AI in the UK for allegedly replicating millions of images for its Stable Diffusion model. Additionally, illustrators have initiated a class-action lawsuit in the US against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt for copyright violations.
Key facts
- Court of Cassation ruling No. 1107 of January 16, 2023
- Artwork: 'The Scent of the Night' by a young Genoese architect
- RAI used the work as set design for Sanremo Festival 2016 without authorization
- Work is a fractal floral digital piece
- Court found it sufficiently creative under Italian copyright law
- RAI argued the work was generated by software, not human creativity
- Cassation could not rule on AI authorship due to procedural issue
- Getty Images sued Stability AI in the UK for copying millions of images
- US lawsuit by Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, Karla Ortiz against Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt
- Getty has licensing agreements with other AI startups but not Stability AI
Entities
Artists
- Sarah Andersen
- Kelly McKernan
- Karla Ortiz
Institutions
- Court of Cassation
- RAI
- Getty Images
- Stability AI
- Midjourney
- DeviantArt
- Tribunale di Genova
- Corte di Appello di Genova
Locations
- Italy
- Genoa
- United Kingdom
- United States