US Copyright Office Guidance on Generative AI

copyright
generative AI
law
AI
The US Copyright Office clarifies that machines cannot be authors and that only the human-authored aspects of AI-assisted works are protected.
Author

synesis

Published

March 16, 2023

The US Copyright Office issued a registration guidance today concerning the copyright status of generative AI:

  1. Machines cannot be an “author” (p.4).

  2. Whether a work can be copyrighted depends on whether an author’s “own original mental conception” is given a “visible form” (p.6).

  3. When only machines determine the expressive elements of a work, it’s not protected (p.7).

  4. A work mixing human and machine effort has to have “sufficient” human authorship to be protected, and the protection only covers the “human-authored aspects” (p.8)

U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress. Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence. March 2023. [1]

(On Mastodon)

Originally posted on LinkedIn.

References

[1] U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress. “Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence.” March 2023. https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-05321.pdf