German photographer Robert Kneschke recently announced that his lawsuit against LAION e.V. was dismissed by the Hamburg Regional Court. The court cited the limitation provision of Section 60d UrhG, stating that the activities of LAION’s members who also pursue paid work with companies profiting from the LAION dataset cannot be attributed to the association itself.
While the court seemed to align with Kneschke’s view that the opt-out in natural language is machine-readable, no clear judgment was made on that point. The ruling has raised questions, with Kneschke describing it as a "strange judgment" and indicating that there may be grounds for an appeal.
This case highlights the ongoing challenges faced by creators whose works are used by Large Language Models (LLMs) without consent.
CEPIC continues to support Kneschke and his efforts.
For more details, you can read the anonymised judgment [here], and the full press release from Robert Kneschke and SLD Intellectual Property RA GmbH [here].