So recently there has been a lot of debate on AI-generated art and its copyright. I’ve read a lot of comments recently that made me think of this video and I want to highly encourage everyone to watch it, maybe even watch it again if you already viewed it. Watch it specifically with the question “If an AI did it, would it change anything?”
Right now, AI-generated works aren’t copyrightable. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/ai-generator-art-text-us-copyright-policy-1234661683/ This means you can not copyright the works produced by AI.
I work in games so this is more seemingly relevant to me than maybe it is to you. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/03/valve-responds-to-claims-it-has-banned-ai-generated-games-from-steam/ Steam has outright said, earlier this month, that it will not publish games on its platform without understanding if the training data has been of images that aren’t public domain.
So right now, common AI is producing works that are potentially copyright-infringing works and are unable to be copyrighted themselves.
So with this information, should copyright exist, and if not, how do you encourage artists and scientists to produce works if they no longer can make a living off of it?
I’m not a lawyer, this is my personal opinion which has no basis in legal fact. Use my words at your own peril.
Tom’s video goes very nicely in-depth, and makes a good argument for why a lot of media, memeing and things in content do not fall under fair use and are considered copyright infringement in US/UK law.
A judge could just as well make a ruling that widens the understanding of fair use in copyright law as they could restrict it in favour of copyright owners. Big firms like Sony do court shop so they will try to find somewhere that would more likely rule in their favour. Just saying it might not be entirely beneficial even for companies with huge coffers to try to define where the line is for fair use through a suit.
Especially for copyrights owned by businesses that have gone under or just completely orphaned copyrighted works, I think the law should be changed such that those rights return to the original creator or the work enters the public domain. I agree with Tom in general that copyright ought to last less than 50 years, ideally 20, but big entertainment ain’t gonna let that happen anytime soon.
Courts and lawyers and the whole system being so trigger-happy with lawsuits in the US just makes my head spin. It is the “land of the fee” after all, the team with big bucks often wins out nowadays.
In any case, I can’t wait for next year for it to be legal to draw a “fanart” Steamboat Willie sporting a very large willy.