On Wednesday, the US Copyright Office began seeking public comment on issues surrounding generative AI systems and copyright. The public comment period, which starts on August 30, aims to explore the complex intersection of AI technology with copyright laws, and it closes on November 15. The comments could inform how the agency decides to grant copyrights in the future.
Outlined in a 24-page document published as a PDF file by the Federal Register, the "Notice of inquiry and request for comments" asks questions with far-reaching consequences for intellectual property in America.
Specifically, the Copyright Office is interested in four main areas: the use of copyrighted materials to train AI models and whether this constitutes infringement; the extent to which AI-generated content should or could be copyrighted, particularly when a human has exercised some degree of control over the AI model’s operations; how liability should be applied if AI-generated content infringes on existing copyrights; and the impact of AI mimicking voices or styles of human artists, which, while not strictly copyright issues, may engage state laws related to publicity rights and unfair competition.
Comments are sought to address these concerns because, in a relatively short period, we've seen the arrival of generative AI tools with surprising capabilities that can render images and video, imitate voices, answer questions, and compose text on demand. AI models have spawned hype and backlash, heavy corporate investment, and lawsuits. Those instances have put the Copyright Office on high alert as the frequency of AI-related copyright incidents increases:
Over the past several years, the Office has begun to receive applications to register works containing AI-generated material, some of which name AI systems as an author or co-author. At the same time, copyright owners have brought infringement claims against AI companies based on the training process for, and outputs derived from, generative AI systems.
As concerns and uncertainties mount, Congress and the Copyright Office have been contacted by many stakeholders with diverse views. The Office has publicly announced a broad initiative earlier this year to explore these issues. This Notice is part of that initiative and builds on the Office’s research, expertise, and prior work, as well as information that stakeholders have provided to the Office.
Listed among the incidents noted in the Copyright Office document are stories we've reported on in the past, including the first registration of latent diffusion artwork to Kris Kashtanova, which was granted in September and conditionally revoked in February; an attempt to register an AI-created artwork solely to a machine by Stephen Thaler (who has attempted similar things with patents), which a judge declined this month; and a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of Sarah Silverman regarding the company's use of her copyrighted works in ChatGPT training data. Additionally, artists sued Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt as a class action in January for alleged copyright violations.