Gruffalo illustrator Scheffler weighs legal action against AI firms
Axel Scheffler says AI companies have reproduced his iconic characters without permission and is considering lawsuits, likely in Germany.
What to know
- Axel Scheffler, illustrator of The Gruffalo, is considering legal action against AI firms for reproducing his characters without permission in AI-generated images.
- He plans to pursue litigation in Germany, believing the EU offers stronger copyright protections for creators than the UK.
- OpenAI is already facing a lawsuit from Penguin Random House over AI-generated images of another children's character; a Munich court will rule on copyright infringement in spring 2027.
- AI companies argue that training on copyrighted material does not automatically constitute infringement, though Germany has precedent of copyright holders winning against AI firms.
“There have been two cases in Germany where music collecting societies have been able to win against AI companies by showing that those AI companies have copied lyrics of songs verbatim and have presented them.”
Nick Buckland, IP lawyer, Lewis Silkin · BBC ↗
Axel Scheffler Gruffalo illustratorOpenAI AI companyPenguin Random House Publishing groupNick Buckland IP lawyer, Lewis Silkin
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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OpenAI defends model training practices in response
An OpenAI spokesperson stated the company is having "productive conversations" with rightsholders and emphasized that models are trained on various sources. The company noted that copyright holders can submit disputes directly.
“We're having productive conversations with rightsholders around the world about supporting creativity, including fan art, while protecting intellectual property and taking appropriate action in response to copyright complaints.”
— OpenAI -
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The entire creative world should get behind Alex Scheffler and start a class action lawsuit against AI firms that are extracting our visual culture. We need a landmark case to put the brakes on.
2 more of the top 3 · 22 posts in this stretch
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I try to avoid using AI as much as possible. I'm at uni at the moment and two of my lecturers have set courseworks where I have to use it. The first I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to. He asked us to use it to create a document and then assess it, I hope with the idea of showing us how bad it was. The second, though? We had to use some form of…
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# BBC # News # Entertainment # Arts Gruffalo illustrator considering legal action against AI firms
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OpenAI already facing Penguin Random House lawsuit over Little Dragon character — OpenAI is being sued by German publishing group Penguin Random House and illustrator Ingo Siegner over AI-generated images of the children's character The Little Dragon Coconut. The Munich Regional Court is scheduled to decide the copyright infringement question in spring 2027.
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Scheffler considers Germany as jurisdiction for lawsuit — Scheffler is leaning toward launching legal action in Germany because he believes the European Union offers stronger protections for creators. IP lawyer Nick Buckland confirmed Germany has precedent: two cases where music collecting societies won against AI companies by proving verbatim copying of song lyrics.
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Scheffler calls reproduced images "clear theft of copyright" — Scheffler described seeing his most famous creations digitally recreated in locations such as Silicon Valley and Oktoberfest. He characterized the AI output as clearly identifiable reproductions of his work placed in new contexts.
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Scheffler tells BBC he is seriously considering legal action against AI firms — Axel Scheffler, illustrator of The Gruffalo since 1999, revealed to BBC London that he wants AI companies to stop using his artwork without permission and is weighing litigation. He said he was shocked to discover AI-generated images of his characters and the Gruffalo itself in various contexts.
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first by JournalArta, 13d ago · also BBC
1 more headline
- Gruffalo illustrator considering legal action against AI firms Mastodon · 12d ago
What people are saying 18 voices from 1 site · best of 22 · verbatim
- Nov 2
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Yes. Having terms about what people are and are not allowed to do with your IP is a standard part of copyright law. Having terms about who is and is not allowed to read the book isn't.
- Oct 31
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Not overly, especially when you can just organize a 10 minutes meeting with the individual and discuss the topic, it pretty quickly highlights anyone that has no actual understanding and who relied on LLM's.
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While I don't/wouldn't personally have a problem with my artwork being absorbed into "the collective" of a system sampling and and using characteristics of my work, people have told me that it's affecting their commissions, sales, etc. and I completely understand. I have had to change a lot about my own career to prepare for AI having a bigger…
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No, it's just slop. You can try to equivocate all you want, but all AI output is slop by definition.
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They're almost certainly not "hiring" anyone. And even if they are silly enough to PAY for AI slop, they're still paying for stolen material because all AI output is based on theft.
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I assumed the idea was that AI slop would drown out the signal so that you'd literally be unable to find the better human art. In that case you'd need a reviewer or news site to direct you to good shows/movies/books. Like this subreddit for example if this sub isn't just a bot house these days. I don't know just how that person meant it. I don't…
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??? Teachers and administrators are working like crazy to keep students from using AI to cheat and write papers. Tons of teachers I know have completely revamped their courses and things like essays are now required to be hand written or done in class. And if someone does use AI, there are severe consequences. The Dartmouth provost was just forced…
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The Highway Rat, grew horribly fat, from eating up everyone's dinner That book lives rent free in my head, both my boys loved it
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Do they? Seems to me that pretty much any sort of writing or art produced by AI qualifies as slop, and plenty of them seem to love that stuff in at least some contexts.
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how convenient to claim to be "anti-ai" but still come out swinging versus people who are actually anti-ai "ai is bad but anti-ai people are mean and that's worse :("
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A human imitating someone else's art style doesn't necessarily imply that that person acquired the original work illegally in order to learn how to do that. With an AI, it does necessarily imply that.
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it's funny how you have to shift goalposts so that your point sounds even mildly not insane
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AI is not "an artist imitating a style", it is a computer program that sucked up all the style to spit it out a tiny bit different. This is a corpo with a plagiarism tool, not an actual artist with a trained style. Also, if you can recognize someone's style, I think this argument falls flat. Even look alike artists don't draw the EXACT same, and…
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Sorry to hear you're so deluded to think that. I actually happen to be extremely well educated in how ai actually works. And it's got some amount of potential for real application. Or rather the concept of learning algorithms and similar do. But what we currently call ai really doesn't. But sure whatever I'm glad you can mill out slop more…
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That's literally not how AI training works. Original data isn't part of the model.
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But you cannot trademark an art style. Someone can theoretically draw just like him. They should be allowed to and they should be allowed to be hired and paid for it.
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The Gruffalo angle is what makes this one feel different to me — Scheffler's style basically is the brand, and any kid could spot it from across a room. An AI image in that style isn't really 'inspired by' his work, it's just the character with the serial numbers filed off. If anyone has the standing to draw a line here, it's him.
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Except he likely wouldn’t have made bank off his books for 30 years without the protection afforded by copyright. Without that legal protection, publishers could have put out knock-offs as soon as he tried to put anything out, eating into his earnings. Sure, some people would still make a living despite that, but it’s not like artists are known…