ARTICLE · 27 JULY 2022

Questions Surround AI-Generated Art And Copyright Authorship

Holland & Knight

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We previously discussed the idea of who is the owner and who is the creator of AI-generated art. A recent case brought by Stephen Thaler seeks to answer those questions.

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We previously discussed the idea of who is the owner and who is the creator of AI-generated art. A recent case brought by Stephen Thaler seeks to answer those questions.

In his lawsuit, Dr. Stephen Thaler, President and CEO of Imagination Engines, brought suit against the U.S. Copyright Office for refusing to register his AI-generated artwork. Thaler v. Perlmutter, Case No. 1:22-cv-01564 (D.D.C.) (complaint). Thaler sought to copyright "A Recent Entrance to Paradise," a work that was, by Thaler's own admission, "autonomously created by a computer." In the copyright application, Thaler listed the AI program as the author of the work. The Copyright Office denied the registration because it lacked human authorship.

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