The U.S. Supreme Court just declined to take up Stephen Thaler's lawsuit over whether AI-generated art can be copyrighted, leaving lower court rulings and the Copyright Office's human-authorship requirement intact. Thaler sought copyright in 2018 for artwork generated by his DABUS system. While this keeps the 'humans only' rule on the books, questions around AI-assisted human works remain open.
The FTC just submitted a rare comment to the U.S. Copyright Office, warning that training AI on copyrighted material and deceptive synthetic mimicry could violate antitrust and consumer protection laws, even if defended as fair use. Critics argue the agency is overstepping its mandate.
The US Copyright Office just opened a public comment period to figure out where AI and copyright law collide. Regulators are zeroing in on three thorny questions: training on copyrighted data, granting copyright to AI-generated works without humans, and legal liability. Why it matters: As copyright lawsuits pile up against OpenAI and Midjourney, public input here will directly shape the playbook for future AI regulation.
A US federal judge just ruled that artwork generated entirely by AI cannot be copyrighted, upholding the US Copyright Office’s rejection of Stephen Thaler’s application for an image made by his algorithm. Judge Beryl A. Howell stated that human authorship remains a "bedrock requirement" of copyright law, setting a clear legal boundary as generative AI cases pile up.
The US Copyright Office just ruled that images generated solely from text prompts in tools like Midjourney can’t receive copyright protection. Officials compared writing prompts to a client commissioning an artist, meaning the machine controls traditional authorship. Works combining human curation and AI elements may still qualify on a case-by-case basis.
The US Copyright Office just partially revoked a copyright registration for the comic book Zarya of the Dawn, ruling that Midjourney-generated images lack human authorship. While the author retains copyright over the text and the overall creative arrangement of the book, the individual AI images are unprotected because prompt-based outputs cannot be sufficiently predicted or controlled by users.
The US Copyright Office accidentally marked the copyright registration of AI-generated graphic novel Zarya Of The Dawn as revoked due to a software glitch, confirming the registration remains active while its review continues. Creator Kris Kashtanova used Midjourney to generate the art, making this a closely watched test case for how much human input is needed to copyright AI-assisted work.
