U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, in a recent ruling, declared that “Human authorship is a bedrock requirement” for copyright, and that “Human involvement in, and ultimate creative control over, the work at issue was key to the conclusion that the new type of work fell within the bounds of copyright.”
The ruling comes after AI Guy Dr. Stephen Thaler took issue with a ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office, which said that an AI-generated image titled “A Recent Entrance To Paradise” couldn’t have a machine listed as its creator—and, thus, that Thaler couldn’t own the copyright under “work for hire” protections as the client commissioning it.
Note that Judge Howell doesn't say that all AI-generated art is not copyrightable. Certain situations where works where a human has “selected or arranged” the art in question in a “sufficiently creative way that the resulting work constitutes an original work of authorship” could qualify for copyright.
The ruling comes at a time when writers and actors are striking against major Hollywood Studios in part because of the use of AI-generated actors and/or scripts in future productions.
No doubt the ruling will be appealed and will probably end up in the Supreme Court.
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