glitch revokes copyright protection for AI-generated comic book

[tangor]

A glitch in the record-keeping software being piloted by the US Copyright Office (USCO) accidentally revoked the copyright registration of an AI-generated graphic novel.

The application to copyright Zarya Of The Dawn, a comic book containing images created by the text-to-image tool Midjourney, was filed by Kris Kashtanova early last year. In September, the USCO approved the first-of-its-kind application, leading many to believe copyright could be assigned to human creators for AI-assisted works.

Generative AI has brought new creative capabilities, and introduced fresh debates over what can and cannot be copyrighted.

[theregister.com...]

Copyrights and AI generated content are colliding in the real world. Even human directed AI content is struggling to be recognized as "copyrightable".

[engine]

According to the latest on this topic from the U.S. Copyright Office, it seems the novel should not have been granted copyright protection.

"Zarya of the Dawn" author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote and arranged, but not for the images produced by Midjourney, the office said in its letter, dated Tuesday.

The Copyright Office said in its letter that it would reissue its registration for "Zarya of the Dawn" to omit images that "are not the product of human authorship" and therefore cannot be copyrighted.

[reuters.com...]

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Much ado about nothing.

It's not up to the copyright office to decide a book can't be copyrighted if AI acted as an assistant. The courts will decide that, it's why they exist, and already you can see the problem in determining what's human and what's not.

The right thing to do here would have been to let the copyright stand until a court rules on their concerns. Now, if someone else copies the book and beats they/she to the copyright office it's their book? Not cool.

Note: The author is non binary and pronouns are they/she. I don't know how to fit either into the sentence above, it wasn't to be disrespectful that I included both.

[phranque]

in case you were interested, they/she actually means she/her or they/them may be used interchangeably or alternately.
it doesn't mean you are forced to write grammatically awkward sentences.
in your they/she example, "beats her to the copyright office" is equivalent to "beats them to the copyright office".

[tangor]

The copyright office exists to enforce laws already determined by legislation and proved during subsequent court tests, so shutting it down immediately was the right thing to do.

It is up to the AI to sue to prove they deserve the copyright, not the other way around.