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  • What do you think of the ruling today that AI art can't be copyrighted?

    That's not what they ruled. They ruled that the AI itself can't hold a copyright -- which, given how current techniques work, seems like the correct judgement for now.

    Works that use AI in their production can still be copyrighted, but that requires a human to be involved significantly in the creation of the work.

    • My understanding is that it's still (technically) correct. If you generate an image and then edit it yourself, only your edits will have copyright. Basically, you can have a copyright on the diff, but not the original

      • The US Copyright Office made a report about copyrightability of AI works a while back: https://copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf

        Based on an analysis of copyright law and policy, informed by the many thoughtful comments in response to our NOI, the Office makes the following conclusions and recommendations:

        • Questions of copyrightability and AI can be resolved pursuant to existing law, without the need for legislative change.
        • The use of AI tools to assist rather than stand in for human creativity does not affect the availability of copyright protection for the output.
        • Copyright protects the original expression in a work created by a human author, even if the work also includes AI-generated material.
        • Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements.
        • Whether human contributions to AI-generated outputs are sufficient to constitute authorship must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
        • Based on the functioning of current generally available technology, prompts do not alone provide sufficient control.
        • Human authors are entitled to copyright in their works of authorship that are perceptible in AI-generated outputs, as well as the creative selection, coordination, or arrangement of material in the outputs, or creative modifications of the outputs.
        • The case has not been made for additional copyright or sui generis protection for AI- generated content.

        The Office will continue to monitor technological and legal developments to determine whether any of these conclusions should be revisited. It will also provide ongoing assistance to the public, including through additional registration guidance and an update to the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices.

        So, you can have copyright if you used an AI to assist in the production of a work -- not just on edits -- but case-by-case judgement is needed.

  • I view it as generally a good thing. I see copyright as an unnatural restriction on our rights. An explosion of AI art that can't be copyrighted means the default assumption will be that all art you see is libre. Approximately nobody will care about copyright in a few decades at most, and it will be de facto dead.

    (Edited to move this to be a comment for easier discussion)

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