Civitai Halts All Stable Diffusion 3 Model Releases Amid Copyright Concerns

Civitai, a prominent model hosting platform widely utilized by creators of text-to-image models, announced today its temporary suspension of all models related to Stable Diffusion 3 (SD3). Consequently, existing SD3-related models have been archived, rendering them unavailable for image generation or download.

Models Affected by the Suspension:

• All models fine-tuned and trained based on SD3
• All models trained using datasets derived from SD3 model outputs

This abrupt decision was driven by Civitai's concerns over the extensive licensing claims by Stability AI on the SD3 series. For instance, Stability AI claims copyright over models fine-tuned with SD3 and over other models using datasets that include images generated by SD3.

Civitai is currently unclear about the full extent of copyright issues surrounding SD3 and has reached out to Stability AI for clarification but has yet to receive a definitive response.

The issue lies in Stability AI's current licensing terms, which potentially grant the company copyright over a significant number of models. With Stability AI facing notable financial challenges, the implications of a future acquisition could lead to the new owner leveraging the licenses to impose fees.

Such a scenario could severely impact the Civitai platform, possibly forcing the deletion of most SD3-based models or requiring model creators to pay licensing or subscription fees to the new owner.

Considering these factors, Civitai's preemptive suspension of SD3-related model publications seems prudent, albeit potentially disruptive to the community. Civitai hopes for a clarification from Stability AI; if a clear copyright explanation is provided or if the claims mentioned are confirmed, Civitai may reconsider the ban based on the circumstances.

In a scenario where creators and users are fully aware of the copyright risks involved, it's unlikely that Civitai will maintain a long-term, comprehensive ban on the SD3 series, considering its scale and impact.