US Copyright Office denies protection for another AI-created image
AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing Rights
Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Copyright Office has again rejected copyright protection for art created using artificial intelligence, denying a request by artist Jason M. Allen for a copyright covering an award-winning image he created with the generative AI system Midjourney.
The office said on Tuesday that Allen's science-fiction themed image "Theatre D'opera Spatial" was not entitled to copyright protection because it was not the product of human authorship.
The Copyright Office in February rescinded copyrights for images that artist Kris Kashtanova created using Midjourney for a graphic novel called "Zarya of the Dawn," dismissing the argument that the images showed Kashtanova's own creative expression. It has also rejected a copyright for an image that computer scientist Stephen Thaler said his AI system created autonomously.
Allen said on Wednesday that the office's decision on his work was expected, but he was "certain we will win in the end."
"If this stands, it is going to create more problems than it solves," Allen said. "This is going to create new and creative problems for the copyright office in ways we can't even speculate yet."
Representatives for Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision on Wednesday.
Allen applied last September to register a copyright in "Theatre D'opera Spatial," an image evoking a futuristic royal court that won the Colorado State Fair's art competition in 2022. A Copyright Office examiner requested more information about Midjourney's role in creating the image, which had received national attention as the first AI-generated work to win the contest.
Allen told the office that he "input numerous revisions and text prompts at least 624 times to arrive at the initial version of the image" using Midjourney and altered it with Adobe Photoshop.
The office asked Allen to disclaim the parts of the image that Midjourney generated in order to receive copyright protection. It rejected Allen's application after he declined.
The office's Copyright Review Board affirmed the decision on Tuesday, finding the image as a whole was not copyrightable because it contained more than a minimal amount of AI-created material.
The office also rejected Allen's argument that denying copyrights for AI-created material leaves a "void of ownership troubling to creators."
Read more:
Humans vs. machines: the fight to copyright AI art
AI-created images lose U.S. copyrights in test for new technology
AI-generated art cannot receive copyrights, US court says
Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington
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