Category: Authorship and AI

Has the Copyright Office become more receptive to AI-generated works? Yes, if they embody selection, coordination, arrangement of human creators

On January 29, 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office issued its long-awaited report on authorship and AI. This Report followed its earlier AI Guidance on Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence published on March 16, 2023. Has the U.S. Copyright Office’s position on AI-generated works changed since March 2023? On the surface, the Report might…
Read more: Has the Copyright Office become more receptive to AI-generated works? Yes, if they embody selection, coordination, arrangement of human creators
Amid protest by 6,000 artists, Christie’s holds successful auction of AI-generated artworks, exceeding expected sales

Christie’s first auction for all AI-generated artworks went off without a hitch, despite the protest, in the form of an open letter, of 6,492 artists who demanded Christie’s to cancel the entire auction due to the creative use of AI. The auction had sales of the AI artworks of prominent artists, including Refik Anadol, Holly…
Read more: Amid protest by 6,000 artists, Christie’s holds successful auction of AI-generated artworks, exceeding expected sales
US Copyright Office registers sound recording of opera with AI generated “music and singing voices”

The U.S. Copyright Office continues to grant registrations to copyrighted works with some elements that were AI-generated, provided that the human creator has (1) engaged in an original selection, coordination, or arrangement of elements or (2) added the creator’s own independently created elements. The company ironetic received a registration for Senzia Opera, registered as a…
Read more: US Copyright Office registers sound recording of opera with AI generated “music and singing voices”
Partly AI-generated album cover for Jeremy Renner’s album receives copyright registration, with AI-generated elements excluded

Record Street Music, the label behind Jeremy Renner’s album Love and Titanium, received a copyright registration for the album cover that was partly AI-generated. Basis for the claim of a work of authorship: “2-D artwork, The author?s contributions to the image consist of the following: author modified the abstracted bird at the top center of…
Read more: Partly AI-generated album cover for Jeremy Renner’s album receives copyright registration, with AI-generated elements excluded
U.S. Copyright Office allows registration of computer programs w/ AI-generated source code excluded

The U.S. Copyright Office continues to allow the registrations of works with some AI-generated elements excluded. Today, we canvassed the Copyright Office’s treatment of computer programs. Just last November, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that 25% of the company’s new code in its its programs is written by AI. That percentage is only likely to…
Read more: U.S. Copyright Office allows registration of computer programs w/ AI-generated source code excluded
US Copyright Office allows registration of AI-generated video based on editing of AI generated video, music

The U.S. Copyright Office recently allowed the registration of an AI-generated video with AI-generated music based on the editing of the AI-generated elements. The work is titled “Film clip for song Just Like In A Movie (SNEAK PREVIEW)” by Andrew John King. King wrote the lyrics for the song, with the music AI-generated, and then…
Read more: US Copyright Office allows registration of AI-generated video based on editing of AI generated video, music
Cancel culture strikes Christie’s auction of AI art

A group of 5,000 plus artists organized an open letter demanding that Christie’s cancel its auction involving AI artworks from the artists Refik Anadol, Holly Herron & Matt Dryhurst, Robbie Barrot and Ronan Barrot, Harold Cohen, Pindar Van Arman, Claire Silver, and others. (Update: we found the webpage listing all 34 lots.) Without identifying any…
Read more: Cancel culture strikes Christie’s auction of AI art
Copyright Office registers artwork collage consisting of AI-generated elements

The U.S. Copyright Office has allowed a registration for a visual collage consisting of elements that were AI-generated. The author remains anonymous, but the work is titled “A Collection of Objects Which Do Not Exist.“ The Copyright Office registered the work as “2-D artwork, images generated by artificial intelligence” on the basis of “collage, selection…
Read more: Copyright Office registers artwork collage consisting of AI-generated elements
US Copyright Office issues Report on Economic Implications of AI for Copyright Policy

Somewhat surprisingly, the Copyright Office just issued another report (on the heels of its authorship and AI report). This one is edited by Brent Lutes, the Chief Economist of the Copyright. The Report analyzes The Economic Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Copyright Policy. Here’s ChatGPT’s summary of the Report: Below is a bullet point summary…
Read more: US Copyright Office issues Report on Economic Implications of AI for Copyright Policy
AI-generated image received copyright registration based on “selection, coordination, and arrangement.” Yes, in the United States. How?

As first reported by CNet, the AI-company Invoke, successfully registered a single AI-generated image for a work aptly titled “A Single Piece of American Cheese.” (Invoke is the author as an employer under the work-made-for-hire doctrine.) But Invoke did so only based on the “selection, coordination, and arrangement” of elements otherwise generated by an AI…
Read more: AI-generated image received copyright registration based on “selection, coordination, and arrangement.” Yes, in the United States. How?