There’s a lawsuit going on for accessing our images for creating the models? I didn’t know about that. Interesting I just know that they added an opt-in mechanism in 2.0.4 again and that some previous versions also had UI switches for privacy (I even found one in the registry in later versions, where there was no UI switch any more… I set it to false there just to be on the safe side…).
The thing I was describing (which was just a raw thought) was meant in the direction of dedicated model creation service for a customer or a company. Simple example: Let’s say a film studio needs a model for an old film they want to restore with certain actors in it and they want them to look good/sharp in every scene. They could then hire a company like Topaz Labs and have them create a custom model just for their needs (as a paid service). That would mean, that the model is trained just for them and can only be used by them. They would get dedicated resources for model training (ability to upload videos and pictures), … Of course you would need contracts for such a thing, without a doubt. But that is something you need for almost any new product.
P.S. Given the fact that Topaz Labs is situated in America, things are quite a bit different than in Europe, anyhow. The fact alone that software patents are possible and common in America (even for the most basic algorithms), plus patent trolls - makes things quite different over there.
Every software development company has to be in fear of infringing them, so they usually already create a significant fund for possible legal suits, before a project is even devised and the first line of code is written.