This isn't the first time the Copyright Office has rejected AI-generated artwork. Earlier, it revoked copyright protection for images made by artist Kris Kashtanova using Midjourney and also denied copyright registration for an image claimed to be autonomously generated by computer scientist Stephen Thaler's AI system. Allen believes the decision will create more problems than it solves, predicting new and creative issues for the copyright office.
Key takeaways:
- The US Copyright Office Review Board denied copyright protection for an AI-generated artwork that won a Colorado State Fair art contest in 2022 because it lacks the human authorship required for registration.
- The artist, Jason M. Allen, used the Midjourney image synthesis service to create the piece and made numerous revisions and text prompts to arrive at the initial version of the image. He then edited the resulting image with Adobe Photoshop.
- The Copyright Office asked Allen to disclaim the portions of the image created by Midjourney to qualify for copyright protection. After he refused to do so, his application was denied and the decision was upheld by the Copyright Review Board.
- This is not the first time the Copyright Office has rejected AI-generated artwork. It has previously revoked copyright protection for images made by other artists using AI, but allowed copyrighting the human-arranged portions of the work.