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Cover picture of the comic: The AI is named as the author
Photo:
Kris Kashtanova / Midjourney
The current debate about artificial intelligence raises new questions for many creative workers: Who is actually the artist when an AI was used to help in the creation process?
And what about copyright when an AI has created an image based on a human idea?
The US Copyright Office has now clarified: Artists can use image generators to create new works.
But if they want to be registered as authors, they have to do it again themselves.
The current decision was about the comic publication »Zarya of the Dawn« by Kris Kashtanova.
While the MidJourney image generator is featured on the album's cover, Kashtanova did not specifically state how the artificial intelligence was used in the original registration.
After the fact was raised in social media posts, the US Copyright Office ordered a review.
An image generator is not a brush or a camera
In the 29-page decision, the copyright experts closely followed the process of creating the comic and also looked at how the image generator used worked.
According to the lawyers' opinion, it is not enough for a human to choose between the different results that the software delivers.
"The fact that the outcome is unpredictable distinguishes Midjourney from other tools used by artists from a copyright perspective," the letter reads.
Therefore, the "traditional elements of authorship" of the generated images lie with the algorithms and not with the people who give them text specifications.
However, Kashtanova does not have to do without copyright protection completely.
The plot of the comic is still the work of a human creator, as are the images, which were subsequently modified with an image editing program.
The result: While the comic's old registration is revoked, the Copyright Office issues a modified registration that spells out exactly what is protected about the comic.
Kashtanova herself sees the decision as a success, as the agency has approved many collaborative practices between human artists and artificial intelligence.
Now she wants to look for arguments to be able to register the pictures themselves as an expression of her own artistic work.
The question unanswered by the Copyright Office is to what extent image generators encroach on the rights of artists whose works were used to teach the algorithms.
There are currently several lawsuits being filed by artists and picture agencies that are intended to clarify this fundamental question.
tmk/Reuters