Data mining uses computers to examine large collections of data for patterns or relationships. When the data includes creative work, a practical question follows: who may use that work, and under what conditions? German copyright law permits data mining when data is lawfully accessible and subsequently deleted, but generative models have brought such rules under greater scrutiny. section 4.11
Images in a large dataset
LAION-5B contains links to billions of publicly available images and is used by developers of generative image models. A photographer asked for his stock images to be removed. LAION said it could not readily identify them in its link-only database; Stability AI later announced it would honor artists’ opt-out requests. The dispute shows how difficult it can be to identify and address individual contributions at this scale. section 4.11
