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US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

reuters.com

81–90 of 562 posts

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#81
post #63

What, if any, practical implications does this have? Why would a real person or company want to specify a non real person as an author?

Unlicensed Human Code is 100% copyrighted and closed source. Unlicensed AI Code is 0% copyrighted and open source and can't be closed.

Not open source...... public domain. There is a big difference.

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#82
post #21

This is pretty much the exact same case as the monkey that took a photo. The photo is now in the public domain as the monkey cannot be an author of the photo and since the photographer didn't take the photo, neither is he the author. The US Copyright Office clarified that "only works created by a human can be copyrighted under United States law, which excludes photographs and artwork created by animals or by machines…

I still can't believe the guy went to Indonesia, went into the monkeys' habitat, gained their trust, set up the camera on a tripod in a way the monkeys would have access to it, adjusted the focus/exposure to capture a facial close-up -- basically engineered the entire situation specifically for that outcome, and simply because he didn't physically hit the shutter he lost credit for the photo. Meanwhile I can open my…

[deleted]

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't believe the guy went to Indonesia, went into the monkeys' habitat, gained their trust, set up the camera on a tripod in a way the monkeys would have access to it, adjusted the focus/exposure to capture a facial close-up -- basically engineered the entire situation specifically for that outcome, and simply because he didn't physically hit the shutter he lost credit for the photo. Meanwhile I can open my…

Yeah I'm a little torn on this one. I generally think that much of IP law causes more harm than good, so in the abstract I'm in favor of copyright being weaker. But in this specific case, given the context of existing copyright law and its intent it seems pretty obvious to me that he should have copyright over the photo. I don't think it's analogous to AI art though - no other humans creative input and therefore live…

> no other humans creative input and therefore livelihood was ever involved in the process

What would be the creative output of an artist who never saw the creative output of other artists? We think too highly of ourselves, as if creativity happens in a clean room and we are the hero-creators of our works from pure brain magic.

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#84
post #21

This is pretty much the exact same case as the monkey that took a photo. The photo is now in the public domain as the monkey cannot be an author of the photo and since the photographer didn't take the photo, neither is he the author. The US Copyright Office clarified that "only works created by a human can be copyrighted under United States law, which excludes photographs and artwork created by animals or by machines…

I still can't believe the guy went to Indonesia, went into the monkeys' habitat, gained their trust, set up the camera on a tripod in a way the monkeys would have access to it, adjusted the focus/exposure to capture a facial close-up -- basically engineered the entire situation specifically for that outcome, and simply because he didn't physically hit the shutter he lost credit for the photo. Meanwhile I can open my…

All he had to do, if what he wanted was a copyright, is to have pressed the button. He was right there and able to do it. And then his photos would have been like the millions of other photos of monkeys taken by humans, undistinguished, and we could just ignore them and nobody would know or care who he is.

But no, he wanted a "monkey selfie", in other words he insisted he not be the author of the work, that he not be the entity that chose the exact moment and pose to capture, that he not be entity with the spark of inspiration that creates a work.

He made sure he wasn't the author, and is now livid that he's correctly recognised as not being the author

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#85

So just don't tell anyone you used AI? How exactly are they going to prove it? And does this mean any works created with the assistance of graphics software, like Photoshop, are not copyrightable? What is the definition of AI here? They failed to define what AI means, which means that if there is no test, the ruling can't stand on its own.

there are a lot of ways to detect AI generated imagery with low false-positives (though false-negatives are a risk)

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a legal implication. I'm asking what is it a practical implication. Why would an AI want to copyright their work?

So that you can run an AI company, churn out enough material to flood a particular market, and leverage copyright protection to cash in. Like say you call it the Kittenator, and then do automated keyword search for anything involving kittens - kitten in a box, kitten wearing socks, kittens on the rocks, kitten versus fox - and generate 25 different images for any given keyword combination, and push them out to major…

Pretty sure Adobe is doing exactly this.

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#87
post #70
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't the same argument be made for photography? You aren't making the image, the camera is doing all the work.

Try taking photographs like the ones you see in Nat Geo, or museum exhibits, and you'll quickly realize the camera is most definitely NOT doing all the work.

If you buy an expensive camera with expensive lenses, you will be able to take such photos, won't you?

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#88

So just don't tell anyone you used AI? How exactly are they going to prove it? And does this mean any works created with the assistance of graphics software, like Photoshop, are not copyrightable? What is the definition of AI here? They failed to define what AI means, which means that if there is no test, the ruling can't stand on its own.

It's not the appeals court's job to "define what AI means," their job is to rule on the case in front of them. This particular case involved someone asserting copyright over an image that he claimed was generated by a sentient[0] AI. This image was not created by a human, and only works created by humans can be copyrighted under US law, so they ruled against him.

[0]https://thenewstack.io/stephen-thaler-claims-hes-built-a-sen...

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#89
There is so much IP discussion on here all the time, mostly trending, rationally, toward it being silly, harmful, benefiting the worst people. I just don't understand when this issue comes up we get this very specific intersection of the venn diagram where people are pro-IP, but only for AI art.

Why is this anything other than a good thing? I just can't imagine people being starving artists with their medium being stable diffusion.. That's kind of a funny thought I guess, but doesn't this at the end of the day (perhaps symbolically) only further the possibilities and precedent around training models on all art? Because if their outputs aren't copywritable, who is going to care? Why is this anything other than a win? Who is the population harmed specifically with this ruling, actually?

Re: US appeals court rules AI generated art cannot be copyrighted

#90
post #19

I think that's a good ruling. Say I create a website that just sells AI generated logos. I set up some automation so I'm constantly generating millions of logos per day. I also have a bot that scrapes the web to try and find anyone using a logo similar to the ones on my website, and then send legal threats demanding payment for copying my artwork. I'm sure more imaginative scammers will find a way to copyright troll…

Copyright law: A reason that copyright trolls are less common than patent trolls is that under copyright law, works created independently are not infringing. In court, you might have to prove that you did actually create the thing independently, but I think most juries would be sympathetic to this case. "Oh, you think that the defendant combed through your giant library of millions of logos to find this one specific, rather simple looking specimen."

Also, a lot of logos are simply not "artistic" enough to be eligible for copyright. So in general, logos are more likely to be the subject of trademark litigation than copyright litigation.

Trademark law: In order to claim a trademark you must have used the mark in commerce. So a catalogue of logos not used in commerce is of no real value from a trademark perspective.

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