In complete transparency, the "jury is out" on this sort of conversation, meaning we don't completely know. Getty Images/Unsplash said they're not allowing AI images because of this concern, but I personally believe that's because they're concerned about the competition/controversy.
Stable Diffusion, like Dalle-2, and MidJourney were 100% trained on unlicensed copyrighted work, which is probably where most of the concern is focused.
Even in this HN thread, there are examples of "summoned" images with what looks to be watermarks or signatures from notable sites and artists.
We technically haven't written our license yet, but it'll basically be along the lines of "don't resell these images without significant alterations, don't use these images to launch a similar tool, don't re-distribute or sell the images as is to other stock photo sites."
These images (AI generated in general, not directly GhostlyStock's photos) have already been used in and on magazine covers, artist album art, and many other places.
My personal take is:
- yes these tools have been trained on copyrighted work
- yes it does seem rather insensitive to use an artist's name to replicate their style
- yes I/we do have rights to license these generated works as we please
The space is rapidly evolving, and I'm also very interested to see how this all plays out over time.
note: I wrote this rather rapidly, so forgive me if I seem a bit blunt about this. I do think it's a conversation that should be taken seriously.