Judge Orrick dismissed a number of the claims in Sarah Anderson’s proposed class action suit against Stability AI and other AI companies on Oct. 30, 2024. In sum, Judge Orrick ruled:
- Copyright claim against Stability AI survives.
- Copyright claim against DeviantArt dismissed with leave to amend.
- Copyright claim against Midjourney dismissed with leave to amend.
- DMCA CMI removal claim dismissed with leave to amend.
- Breach of contract claim against DeviantArt dismissed with leave to amend.
- Right of publicity claim against all defendants dismissed with leave to amend.
- Unfair competition claim against all defendants with dismissed leave to amend.
- Proposed class action survives.
This week, Anderson filed her First Amended Complaint to address the court’s reasons for dismissal, such as the need to identify specific works allegedly infringed.
Anderson’s First Amended Complaint abandons the sweeping allegation that AI text-to-image generators are one giant “21st century collage tool.” Judge Orrick rejected that theory. In the Amended Complaint, there’s no mention of the word “collage.”
The First Amendment Complaint includes more specific allegations (which we hope to examine more closely) and expands from 7 claims (in 46 pages) to 17 claims (in 96 pages) against the defendants.
The First Amended Complaint also adds several new named plaintiffs in addition to the 3 from the original complaint: H. Southworth pka Hawke Southworth, an individual; Grzegorz Rutkowski, an individual; Gregory Manchess, an individual; Gerald Brom, an individual; Jingna Zhang, an individual; Julia Kaye, an individual; Adam Ellis, an individual.
And it adds one new defendant in addition to the 4 from the original complaint: Runway AI, Inc.