We’ve spoken about DALLE here on Wishu before but if you’re unaware then it’s an AI-based image generation tool, which ‘samples’ a range of image repository websites and online references to create all new visuals based on text prompts.
DALL·E is the most well-known of these new apps, while Midjourney has also become popular in recent months, enabling users to create some startling visual artworks, with virtually no effort at all.

For image curators who need these softwares for marketing purposes, you may be curious as to where ownership rights come in; what are your usage rights to the visuals you create – and for marketers, can you actually use these images in your content, without potential copyright concerns?

According to terms of use for DALL·E, users do have the rights to use their creations for any purpose, including commercial usage. You can even sell the visuals you create, though most stock photo platforms are now re-assessing whether they’ll actually accept such for sale. The T&C reads;

“Subject to your compliance with these terms and our Content Policy, you may use Generations for any legal purpose, including for commercial use. This means you may sell your rights to the Generations you create, incorporate them into works such as books, websites, and presentations, and otherwise commercialise them.”

Interestingly, last week Getty Images became the latest platform to ban the upload and sale of illustrations generated through AI art tools. Their reasoning? “Concerns with respect to the copyright of outputs from these models and unaddressed rights issues with respect to the imagery, the image metadata and those individuals contained within the imagery.”

Part of the concern here is that the visuals that are used as the source material for these AI generated depictions may not be licensed for commercial use. Nevertheless, even this element can’t stand as a definitive legal barrier. 

According to The Verge; “Software like Stable Diffusion [another AI art tool] is trained on copyrighted images scraped from the web, including personal art blogs, news sites, and stock photo sites like Getty Images. The act of scraping is legal in the US, and it seems the output of the software is covered by “fair use” doctrine. But fair use provides weaker protection to commercial activity like selling pictures, and some artists whose work has been scrapped and imitated by companies making AI image generators have called for new laws to regulate this domain.”