AI Copyright

Extracted Attributes

• Primary Concern

  Copyright infringement during AI model training and from AI-generated outputs

• Regulatory Body

  U.S. Copyright Office

• Key Legal Defense

  Fair Use

• Legal Distinction Clarified

  Piracy vs. Copyright in AI

• Global Competition Implication

  Crucial for U.S. companies (e.g., OpenAI) to compete with China

• Core Principle (U.S. Copyright Office)

  Human creativity is central to copyright protection

• Technical Concept Supporting Distinction

  Positional Encoding

Timeline

• Rapid advancement of deep learning-based generative AI models brings AI copyright issues to the forefront. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2020s

• U.S. Copyright Office published a Rule on a range of issues related to the use of AI. (Source: Web Search)

  2023-03

• U.S. Copyright Office launched a broad initiative to explore the intersection of copyright and AI. (Source: Web Search)

  2023

• Several pending U.S. lawsuits were filed challenging the use of copyrighted data to train AI models. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2023

• U.S. Copyright Office published a notice of inquiry in the Federal Register, seeking public input on AI copyright issues. (Source: Web Search)

  2023-08

• A district court in Washington D.C. reaffirmed the U.S. Copyright Office’s stance that AI-generated content, in and of itself, cannot receive copyright protection. (Source: Web Search)

  2023-08

• U.S. Copyright Office received over 10,000 comments on its notice of inquiry regarding AI copyright. (Source: Web Search)

  2023-12

• The Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act of 2024 was introduced in the U.S. Congress. (Source: Web Search)

  2024-04-09

• U.S. Copyright Office published Part 1 of its Report on copyright and AI, addressing digital replicas. (Source: Web Search)

  2024-07-31

• TechTarget article on AI-generated content copyright was updated to provide current information. (Source: Web Search)

  2024-11

• U.S. Copyright Office further clarified that AI-assisted works where the creative expression of the human remains evident can be copyrighted. (Source: Web Search)

  2025-01

• U.S. Copyright Office released Part 2 of its Report on copyright and AI, addressing the copyrightability of outputs created using generative AI. (Source: Web Search)

  2025-01-29

• U.S. Copyright Office released a pre-publication version of Part 3 of its Report. (Source: Web Search)

  2025-05-09

• A landmark ruling for Anthropic affirmed Fair Use for training AI on legally acquired data by distinguishing input from output. (Source: Related Document)

  Undated

Artificial intelligence and copyright

In the 2020s, the rapid advancement of deep learning-based generative artificial intelligence models raised questions about whether copyright infringement occurs when such are trained or used. This includes text-to-image models such as Stable Diffusion and large language models such as ChatGPT. As of 2023, there were several pending U.S. lawsuits challenging the use of copyrighted data to train AI models, with defendants arguing that this falls under fair use. Popular deep learning models are trained on mass amounts of media scraped from the Internet, often utilizing copyrighted material. When assembling training data, the sourcing of copyrighted works may infringe on the copyright holder's exclusive right to control reproduction, unless covered by exceptions in relevant copyright laws. Additionally, using a model's outputs might violate copyright, and the model creator could be accused of vicarious liability and held responsible for that copyright infringement.

Web Search Results

• Copyright and Artificial Intelligence | U.S. Copyright Office

  Image 2 Since launching an initiative in early 2023, the Copyright Office has been examining the copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence (AI), including the scope of copyright in AI-generated works and the use of copyrighted materials in AI training. After hosting public listening sessions and webinars, the Office published a notice of inquiry in the _Federal Register_ in August 2023, which received over 10,000 comments by December 2023. [...] _Copyright and Artificial Intelligence_ analyzes copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence (AI). This Report is being issued in several Parts. Part 1 was published on July 31, 2024, and addresses the topic of digital replicas. Part 2 was published on January 29, 2025, and addresses the copyrightability of outputs created using generative AI. On May 9, 2025, the Office released a pre-publication version of Part 3 in response to congressional inquiries and expressions of

• Copyright Office Releases Part 2 of Artificial Intelligence Report

  Today, the U.S. Copyright Office is releasing Part 2 of its Report on the legal and policy issues related to copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). This Part of the Report addresses the copyrightability of outputs created using generative AI. The Office affirms that existing principles of copyright law are flexible enough to apply to this new technology, as they have applied to technological innovations in the past. It concludes that the outputs of generative AI can be protected by [...] In early 2023, the Copyright Office announced a broad initiative to explore the intersection of copyright and AI. Since then, the Office has issued registration guidance for works incorporating AI-generated content, hosted public listening sessions and webinars, met with experts and stakeholders, published a notice of inquiry seeking input from the public, and reviewed more than 10,000 responsive comments, which served to inform these conclusions. [...] “After considering the extensive public comments and the current state of technological development, our conclusions turn on the centrality of human creativity to copyright,” said Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. “Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection. Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine, however, would undermine rather than further

• Is AI-generated Content Copyrighted? - TechTarget

  Overall, AI is changing copyright law. It is causing the legal system to define what constitutes authorship and how to protect human-generated content even if it contains AI-generated content, said Robert Scott, managing partner and Scott & Scott LLP. [...] In the U.S., the Copyright Office guidance states that works containing AI-generated content are not copyrightable without evidence that a human author contributed creatively. New laws can help clarify the level of human contribution needed to protect works containing AI-generated content. Editor's note: This article was updated in November 2024 to provide updated information regarding current and proposed copyright legislation, and to improve the reader experience. [...] The short-term future of AI-generated content copyright will likely aim to clarify existing concepts, such as fair use and authorship for the AI age. Most AI companies rely on fair use to justify how they train their models, but it presents a gray area, Siegel said.

• Artificial intelligence and copyright - Wikipedia

  The Copyright Office further clarified in a January 2025 that AI-assisted works which the creative expression of the human remains evident in the work can be copyrighted, which can include creative adaption of prompts for AI generators or usage of AI to assist in creation process of a work such as filmmaking.( Works "where the expressive elements are determine by a machine" still remain uncopyrightable.( Following this guidance, the Copyright Office registered "A Single Piece of American [...] Under U.S. law, to prove that an AI output infringes a copyright, a plaintiff must show the copyrighted work was "actually copied", meaning that the AI generates output which is "substantially similar" to their work, and that the AI had access to their work.( [...] As AI is increasingly used to generate literature, music, and other forms of art, the U.S. Copyright Office has released new guidance emphasizing whether works, including materials generated by artificial intelligence, exhibit a 'mechanical reproduction' nature or are the 'manifestation of the author's own creative conception'.( The U.S. Copyright Office published a Rule in March 2023 on a range of issues related to the use of AI, where they stated:

• AI, Copyright, and the Law: The Ongoing Battle Over Intellectual ...

  In response to these legal battles, lawmakers have begun crafting legislation to address AI and copyright concerns. One such proposal is the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act of 2024, introduced in the U.S. Congress on April 9, 2024. This bill would require companies developing generative AI models to disclose the datasets used to train their systems, increasing transparency and potentially giving copyright owners more control over their works.( [...] Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping industries, but it also raises complex legal questions—particularly in the realm of copyright law. In the past year, courts, legislators, and regulators have grappled with issues such as whether AI-generated content can be copyrighted, whether AI developers are liable for using copyrighted materials to train models, and how existing intellectual property (IP) laws should adapt to new technologies. These questions have significant implications [...] One of the most pressing issues is whether AI-generated works can be protected under copyright law. In August 2023, a district court in Washington D.C reaffirmed the U.S. Copyright Office’s stance that AI-generated content, in and of itself, cannot receive copyright protection.( Even though Thaler’s AI generated work met all requirements to receive copyright protection, “the court agreed with the Copyright Office that only human beings qualify as authors under U.S. copyright law, meaning that