Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantART face class action lawsuit, spy software determines that a staff lied about working, and a Chinese bank offers a Pfizer vaccine to customers if they deposit $500,000.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Monday January 16th and I’m your host, Ashee Pamma.
AI platforms Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantART are facing a class action lawsuit for infringing the rights of artists and other creators with the use of AI product Stable Diffusion The class action was filed by reputable Joseph Saveri law firm as well as other law firms on behalf of a class of plaintiffs seeking compensation for damages caused by the AI companies and an injunction to prevent future harms. The AI platforms are accused of generating their AI image products by training their models on billions of copyrighted images which were downloaded and used without compensation or consent from the artists. The lawsuit alleges direct copyright infringement, related to forgeries, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), violation of class members’ rights of publicity, and various other violations of California’s unfair competition laws.
Source: PR Newswire
Karlee Besse, an employee of Vancouver Island accounting firm Reach CPA has been ordered to repay her employer for “time theft” after the company’s tracking software determined that she was performing personal tasks while she claimed to be working. Besse initially claimed she was wrongfully laid off and that her employer owed her $5,000 in unpaid wages and severance pay. The employer argued however that she engaged in time theft and filed a countersuit seeking just over $2,600 in wages it paid her while she allegedly wasn’t working as well as part of an advance she received before her employment began, CBS News reported. The court ruling marks one of the first times in which a spyware technology has been used to order a worker to repay an employer for wasting time on the job.
Source: CBS News
According to Business Insider, a Hong-Kong-based bank is offering new and existing customers an express reservation to receive a Pfizer vaccine if they deposit at least $500,000, into an account. The Pfizer vaccine is not available in mainland China and the Chinese population has relied on Chinese vaccines that do not include the MRNA technology. The complimentary vaccine is one of the “exclusive privileges” offered by the Chinese bank, as mainland China lifts travel restrictions to Hong Kong. Other benefits for customers include a body check-up and the hepatitis B vaccine. Customers who apply for and activate a CNCBI GBA Currency Credit Card can get two complimentary vaccines, including the Pfizer vaccine or hepatitis B vaccine, as well as a 15% discount at the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong.
Source: Business Insider
Meta has filed a lawsuit against Israeli surveillance firm, Voyager Labs, alleging that the company used tens of thousands of fake accounts and advanced tracking tools to secretly collect information on 600,000 Facebook and Instagram users, according to a report by Guardian. The lawsuit states that Facebook deleted 38,000 fake profiles set up by the firm, which has offices in the U.S., U.K., Israel, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Data that included posts, likes, friends, photos, comments and information from groups and pages was collected from Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Telegram in addition to Facebook and Instagram users.
Source: Haaretz
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Ashee Pamma.