In new guidance issued yesterday, the U.S. Copyright Office said certain artistic works created with help from AI systems might be eligible for copyright protection.
The agency says the decision whether to copyright an image "will depend
on the circumstances, particularly how the AI tool operates and how it
was used to create the final work."
- According to the office, works generated solely from a text prompt in an AI system won't qualify for human authorship and, therefore, copyright protection.
- Based
on its understanding, the agency said it believes creators don't
ultimately exercise creative control over how AI systems interpret text
prompts and generate art.
- Rather, the office compared prompts to "more like instructions to a commissioned artist."
- However,
there may be some cases in which an artist could modify an AI-generated
work to "such a degree that the modifications meet the standard for
copyright protection," it said.
- The updated guidance comes after the U.S. Copyright Office withdrew copyright registration for AI-created images used in a comic book.
- While
artist Kris Kashtanova wrote the story text, they used the
text-to-image engine Midjourney to create the book's artwork, which is
not eligible for protection.
