{"id":12725,"date":"2023-09-07T14:47:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/startups\/why-this-award-winning-piece-of-ai-art-cant-be-copyrighted\/"},"modified":"2023-09-07T14:47:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:47:06","slug":"why-this-award-winning-piece-of-ai-art-cant-be-copyrighted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725","title":{"rendered":"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span class=\"lead-in-text-callout\">An award-winning piece<\/span> of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, <em>Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial<\/em>, was created by Matthew Allen and came first in last year&#8217;s Colorado State Fair. Since then, the piece has been embroiled in a precedent-affirming copyright dispute. Now, the government agency has issued its third and final decision: Allen\u2019s work is not eligible for copyright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Now, Allen plans to file a lawsuit against the US federal government. \u201cI\u2019m going to fight this like hell,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The problem? Allen used the generative AI program Midjourney to create his entry, and copyright protections are not extended to artificial intelligence\u2014not even the kind that wows art judges. \u201cIt\u2019s in line with previous decisions that require human authors,\u201d says Rebecca Tushnet, a Harvard Law School professor and leading copyright scholar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">It\u2019s a precedent that goes back to 2018 when a photo taken by a macaque was declared public domain because monkeys can\u2019t hold copyright. PETA may beg to differ, but under the law, monkeys and machines have about the same claim on copyright protections right now. (And this isn\u2019t just in the US. In nearly every country, copyright is pegged to human authorship.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Allen was dogged in his attempt to register his work. He sent a written explanation to the Copyright Office detailing how much he\u2019d done to manipulate what Midjourney conjured, as well as how much he fiddled with the raw image, using Adobe Photoshop to fix flaws and Gigapixel AI to increase the size and resolution. He specified that creating the painting had required at least 624 text prompts and input revisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The Copyright Office agreed that the parts of the painting that Allen had altered with Adobe constituted original work. However, it maintained that other parts generated by AI could not be copyrighted. In other words: Allen could copyright parts of the painting, but not the whole thing. This July, Allen appealed once more, arguing that the office had ignored \u201cthe essential element of human creativity\u201d needed to use Midjourney. He attempted to use the fair use doctrine to argue that his work should be registered, because it amounts to a transformative use of copyrighted material.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cThe underlying AI generated work merely constitutes raw material which Mr. Allen has transformed through his artistic contributions,\u201d Allen wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The Copyright Office didn\u2019t buy it. \u201cThe work cannot be registered,\u201d it wrote in its final ruling on September 5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Allen\u2019s dashed efforts highlight a solidifying legal consensus. This August, a US federal judge dismissed a case brought by Missouri-based AI researcher Stephen Thalus, who has been on a mission to prove that the AI system he invented deserves copyright protections. \u201cPlaintiff can point to no case in which a court has recognized copyright in a work originating with a nonhuman,\u201d wrote Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia in her decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Thalus is currently appealing the verdict. Ryan Abbot, his attorney, does not believe that the Copyright Office\u2019s decision on Allen will have an impact on his client\u2019s appeal. But he does see it as having a chilling effect on the wider world of AI-assisted art. \u201cI think it will be a major disincentive to people developing and using AI to make art,\u201d Abbot says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/ai-art-copyright-matthew-allen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial, was created by Matthew Allen and came first in last year&#8217;s Colorado State Fair. Since then, the piece has been embroiled in a precedent-affirming copyright dispute. Now, the government agency has issued its third and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-startups"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial, was created by Matthew\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted | Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial, was created by Matthew\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-07T14:47:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-07T14:47:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/AI-Copyright-Theatre_dx27Opera_Spatial-Culture.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\"},\"headline\":\"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-07T14:47:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-07T14:47:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725\"},\"wordCount\":576,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Startups\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725\",\"name\":\"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted | Brandiary\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-07T14:47:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-07T14:47:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial, was created by Matthew\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"description\":\"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"width\":381,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Brandiary\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted | Brandiary","description":"An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial, was created by Matthew","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted | Brandiary","og_description":"An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial, was created by Matthew","og_url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725","og_site_name":"Brandiary","article_published_time":"2023-09-07T14:47:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-07T14:47:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":670,"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/AI-Copyright-Theatre_dx27Opera_Spatial-Culture.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4"},"headline":"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted","datePublished":"2023-09-07T14:47:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-07T14:47:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725"},"wordCount":576,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Startups"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725","name":"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted | Brandiary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-09-07T14:47:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-07T14:47:06+00:00","description":"An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. The artwork, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre D\u2019op\u00e9ra Spatial, was created by Matthew","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=12725#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can\u2019t Be Copyrighted"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","name":"Brandiary","description":"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization","name":"Brandiary","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","width":381,"height":100,"caption":"Brandiary"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com"],"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12727,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12725\/revisions\/12727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}