The US Copyright Office has issued guidance on protecting authorship rights for humans producing works assisted by AI. The guidance clarifies that no new laws are needed, and existing law can resolve questions of copyrightability when it comes to AI-generated works.
Over 10,000 commenters weighed in on the issue, with some seeking stronger protections for artists as AI technologies advance. However, the Copyright Office insists that the copyright debate was settled in 1965, when commercial computer technology emerged and raised questions about human involvement in AI-created works.
The Register of Copyrights, Abraham Kaminstein, suggested back then that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to copyright questions about computer-assisted human authorship. The Copyright Office agrees with this assessment, stating that “very few bright-line rules are possible” when it comes to AI-generated content.
According to the guidance, works entirely generated by AI cannot be protected by copyright. However, if an AI assists a human in the creative process, its use does not change the copyrightability of the output. The office plans to review AI disclosures and weigh, on a case-by-case basis, what parts of each work are AI-authored and which parts are human-authored.
Any human-authored expressive element can be copyrighted, but any aspect deemed generated purely by AI cannot be. This approach aims to balance human creativity with AI-driven innovation while providing clarity for creators and the public.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/copyright-office-suggests-ai-copyright-debate-was-settled-in-1965