The Hamburg Regional Court has ruled in favor of LAION in the
case of Robert Kneschke v LAION e.V., finding that the use by LAION
– a non-profit organisation - of Kneschke's photo for AI
training benefited from the exception to copyright infringement for
text and data mining for the purpose of scientific research under
Section 60d UrhG (implementing Article 3 of the EU Copyright
Directive).
This decision is somewhat surprising, as this exception was not
considered in the first hearing in July 2024. In that hearing, the
court considered the application of Section 44b UrhG (implementing
Article 4 of the Digital Single Market Directive), which is the
broader exception for text or data mining – in other words,
not limited to research organisations - and it was expected that
the court would base its judgment on that exception. Of particular
interest was the fact that Section 44b UrHG allows the copyright
owner to reserve their rights, provided that they do so in
