“AI raises fundamental questions for copyright law and policy, which many see as existential. To what extent will AI-generated content replace human authorship? How does human creativity differ in nature from what AI systems can generate, now or in the future? What does this mean for the incentive-based foundation of the U.S. copyright system? In what ways can the technology serve as a valuable tool to amplify human creativity and ultimately promote science and the arts? How do we respect and reward human creators without impeding technological progress?”
Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights
Because of the disruptive nature (i.e., an innovation that significantly alters the way that consumers, industries, or businesses operate) of AI generated materials, the US Copyright Office has been studying the effects of AI on the role of copyrights and devising policies and procedures for dealing with those effects.
On March 16, 2023 the Copyright Office launched the New Artificial Intelligence Initiative to address, among other things, the copyrightability of works produced by AI and the use of copyrighted materials in creating data sets that “train” generative AI, which they define as “an application of AI used to generate outputs in the form of expressive material such as text, images, audio, or video. Generative AI systems may take commands or instructions from a human user, which are sometimes called ‘prompts.’”
In August of 2023, the Copyright Office published in The Federal Register a Notice of Inquiry requesting comments and information from the public addressing these issues. Comments were accepted through December 6, 2023.
From their study, which will incorporate these public comments and information, the Copyright Office intends to publish their report Copyright and Artificial Intelligence which will make recommendations for policies within the Copyright Office and to Congress for establishing copyright laws.
On July 31, 2024, the Copyright Office published the first part of the report, Part 1: Digital Replicas. This first part of the report deals with the proliferation of videos, images, and audio recordings that “digitally created or digitally manipulated to realistically but falsely depict an individual.” The report concluded that these unauthorized replicas threaten the entertainment industry, the political arena, and private individuals. It recommends Congress pass laws for protection from these replicas and defines the scope these laws should take in reference to “what kinds of replicas it should cover, whom it should protect, the term of protection, liability, licensing and assignment, First Amendment concerns, potential remedies, and the statute’s relationship to state law.” The recommendations do not include protections for an artist’s “style.”
No dates have been announced yet for the forthcoming parts of the Report. One can follow the progress of the study and the reports on the Copyright Office AI webpage.
