Li v. Liu
Beijing Internet Court
(2023) Jing 0491 Min Chu No. 11279 (2023)
- Written by Jamie Milne, JD
Facts
Li (plaintiff) used Stable Diffusion, an artificial-intelligence (AI) image generator, to create a picture of a young Asian woman. The process involved selecting a blurred model image from the internet, uploading it to Stable Diffusion, then entering word prompts describing the desired art type, subject, environment, and style to refine the image. Li generated four images, adjusting the parameters each time, before arriving at his final image. Li then posted the final image to his social-media platform with hashtags identifying the image as an AI illustration. Liu (defendant) subsequently included Li’s image in a blog post after removing Li’s account name and watermark from the image. Li sued Liu in the Beijing Internet Court, arguing that Liu infringed on Li’s right of authorship and right to dissemination under China’s Copyright Law. In assessing Li’s arguments, the court considered whether the AI-generated image was subject to copyright protections.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Zhu Ge, C.J.)
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