The Plaintiff, Shanghai Character License Administrative Co., Ltd. (SCLA), signed a Licensing Certificate with Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd., the copyright owner of the Ultraman works, obtaining exclusive rights to use and protect the Ultraman series images. It alleged that the Defendant, an AI company, had, without its authorization, generated, and reproduced on its Tab website, images that are substantially similar to the Plaintiff's Ultraman images, thereby infringing the Plaintiff's rights to reproduce, adapt, and disseminate the involved Ultraman images via the internet. The Defendant's images had been created using artificial intelligence. The Plaintiff requested the Guangzhou Internet Court to order the Defendant to immediately cease the infringement and compensate the Plaintiff for economic loss and reasonable litigation costs totaling 300,000 yuan (approx. US$ 41,678).
The Guangzhou Internet Court found that the Ultraman images generated by the Tab website partially or completely copied the original artistic expression of the 'Ultraman' image, and that the Defendant had infringed the Plaintiff's reproduction right by copying the Ultraman works without permission. Additionally, the generated images retained the original expression of the 'Ultraman Tiga' work in part and created new features based on it, which constituted making an adaptation of the works. This infringed the Plaintiff's adaptation right.
It is worth mentioning that when determining the type of liability the Defendant should bear, the Guangzhou Internet Court referred to the Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services implemented on 15 August 2023, and held that the Defendant was a provider of generative AI services and, as such, should take specific technical measures to avoid generating images that are substantially similar to copyrighted works. Furthermore, the Guangzhou Internet Court considered that the Defendant had failed to fulfill its reasonable care obligations, such as establishing an infringement complaint reporting mechanism, warning the users of potential risks, and clearly labeling the AI-generated content. Ultimately, the Guangzhou Internet Court ruled that the Defendant should immediately introduce technical measures to prevent the generation of and compensate the infringing images while users are using its services normally. It awarded compensation for economic losses and reasonable legal fees totaling 10,000 yuan (approx. US$ 1,389).
Source: The Guangzhou Internet Court
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/tESibyYMTerEz6_Uxtlnxw
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