AI Legal Cases

Andersen v. Stability AI Ltd.

U.S. District Court, N.D. California · Docket 3:23-cv-00201

Active Litigation

Court
U.S. District Court, N.D. California
Docket
3:23-cv-00201
Filed
January 13, 2023
Category
Copyright
Judge
Hon. William H. Orrick (Mag. Lisa J. Cisneros)
Plaintiffs
Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, Karla Ortiz and other visual artists (proposed class)
Defendants
Stability AI; Midjourney, Inc.; DeviantArt, Inc.; Runway AI, Inc.
Current status
Active; heading toward the first U.S. AI copyright jury trial
Docket and filings
View on CourtListener

Latest development · July 28, 2026

ORDER REQUIRING RESPONSE re 672 MOTION for Relief. Response due by 8/4/2026. Reply due by 8/7/2026. Signed by Judge William H. Orrick on 07/28/2026. (jmd, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 7/28/2026) (Entered: 07/28/2026)

Executive summary

Visual artists allege Stable Diffusion and downstream tools were trained on billions of scraped images including their works, and can generate outputs in their styles. Induced and direct infringement theories survived dismissal.

Why it matters

The artist class action. A jury verdict either way becomes the reference point for image-model liability and for style-mimicry claims.

Models, datasets, and materials at issue

Target models

  • Stable Diffusion
  • Midjourney
  • DreamUp

Disputed datasets

  • LAION-5B
  • LAION-400M

Materials at issue

Digital and traditional artworks

Docket timeline

  • July 28, 2026

    Transcript of Proceedings held on 07/23/26, before Judge Lisa J. Cisneros. Court Reporter/Transcriber Echo Reporting, Inc., telephone number echoreporting@yahoo.com. Tape Number: 3:06 - 3:42. Per General Order No. 59 and Judicial Conference policy, this transcript may be viewed only at the Clerk's O Docket #682 →

  • July 28, 2026

    ORDER REQUIRING RESPONSE re 672 MOTION for Relief. Response due by 8/4/2026. Reply due by 8/7/2026. Signed by Judge William H. Orrick on 07/28/2026. (jmd, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 7/28/2026) (Entered: 07/28/2026) Docket #683 →

  • July 27, 2026

    OPPOSITION/RESPONSE (re 643 Discovery Letter Brief Regarding Discovery Disputes with Defendants Stability AI, Ltd. and Stability AI, Inc. ) filed byStability AI Ltd., Stability AI, Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Declaration of Jackson Lane, # 2 Exhibit A to Declaration of Jackson Lane)(Kamdar, Aditya) (Fil Docket #681 →

  • July 27, 2026

    TRANSCRIPT ORDER for proceedings held on 7/23/2026 before Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros by DeviantArt, Inc., for Recorded Proceeding - San Francisco. (Botwinick, Simeon) (Filed on 7/27/2026) (Entered: 07/27/2026) Docket #680 →

  • July 24, 2026

    TRANSCRIPT ORDER for proceedings held on 7/23/2026 before Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros by Runway AI, Inc., for Recorded Proceeding - San Francisco. (Whang, Yegina) (Filed on 7/24/2026) (Entered: 07/24/2026) Docket #679 →

  • July 24, 2026

    ORDER by Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros: Based on the parties' representations in the most recent joint status report and at yesterday's discovery status conference, the Court orders as follows: with respect to Plaintiff Andersen, where Defendants have identified specific gaps in her production r Docket #678 →

  • July 23, 2026

    CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE by Stability AI Ltd., Stability AI, Inc. re 674 Administrative Motion to File Under Seal (Kamdar, Aditya) (Filed on 7/23/2026) (Entered: 07/23/2026) Docket #675 →

  • July 23, 2026

    Minute Entry for proceedings held before Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros: Status Conference held on 7/23/2026. Zoom Recording Time: 3:06 - 3:42. (shy, COURT STAFF) (Date Filed: 7/23/2026) Modified on 7/24/2026 (amg, COURT STAFF). Proceedings transcribed by Tara Jauregui of Echo Reporting (Echorepo Docket #677 →

  • July 23, 2026

    Administrative Motion to File Under Seal filed by Stability AI Ltd., Stability AI, Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Declaration of Jackson Lane, # 2 Proposed Order, # 3 PROVISIONALLY FILED UNDER SEAL AMENDED ORDER RESOLVING PLAINTIFFS AND STABILITY AIS DISPUTES REGARDING SOURCE CODE PRODUCTION [ECF NO. 662]) Docket #674 →

  • July 23, 2026

    ORDER by Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros: As the Court resolved Plaintiffs and Runway's dispute regarding Runway's interrogatory responses in its 648 Order, the corrected docket entry at 652 is resolved. The Court GRANTS the 651 administrative sealing motion. (This is a text-only entry generated b Docket #673 →

  • July 23, 2026

    TRANSCRIPT ORDER for proceedings held on 7/23/2026 before Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros by Sarah Andersen, Gerald Brom, Adam Ellis, Julia Kaye, Gregory Manchess, Karla Ortiz, Grzegorz Rutkowski, Jingna Zhang, for Recorded Proceeding - San Francisco. (Saveri, Joseph) (Filed on 7/23/2026) (Entered Docket #676 →

  • July 23, 2026

    Electronic filing error. Incorrect PDF attached. Only a title page attached. Re: 667 Opposition/Response to Motion filed by Midjourney, Inc. (anj, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 7/23/2026) Docket →

  • July 22, 2026

    Administrative Motion to File Under Seal filed by Stability AI Ltd., Stability AI, Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Declaration of Christopher R. Adler in Support of SAIs Administrative Motion to Seal, # 2 Unredacted-Highlighted Version of SAI's Letter Reply to ECF No. 642 (Filed Under Seal), # 3 Unredacted Docket #668 →

Docket entries sync nightly from CourtListener and the RECAP Archive. Full filings are one click away on the linked docket.

Facts on this page were last verified against the docket on July 30, 2026. See how we track these cases, or return to all tracked cases.

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