[roberthahn]

Some countries (I know Canada is one, Germany, where the artist works, is possibly another) have the concept of moral rights enshrined into law. Boiled down, this means that anyone who wants to use an artist’s work in some context must get permission and/or be prepared to compensate the artist (ianal but I did study copyright law for artists in Canada)

The canonical example Canadians refer to is the Eaton Center adorning Michael Snow’s sculpture Flight Stop with ribbons over Christmas. Snow sued the Eaton Centre for compromising the integrity of his art and won.

If a similar mechanism exists in German law (my quick research suggests it does) then the artist may well have an argument to make about AI comprising the integrity of his work.

[DiabloD3]

As far as I can tell, LAION is effectively a phone book.

This would be like suing someone because they made a browser bookmark saying that was piracy.