You create a wonderful piece of digital art or imagery using a familiar generative AI app. It looks amazing, you say to yourself. Proudly, you decide to post it online on your website or blog or use it on the front of your latest book. Accolades arise. Regrettably, the next thing you know, a stern legally imposing letter or missive slams into your email or DM that you’ve infringed on someone else’s work.
Before we dig deeper into this clarion call, I’d like to make sure we are all in alignment about what it means to say that something is copyrighted. I’ll quickly cover this to bring you up to speed. My focus herein pertains to U.S. copyright laws. Other countries can vary quite a bit and an entirely added angle entails international copyright issues associated with generative AI. Please consult with your attorney for the legal beagle entailments.
One twist you might find of keen interest consists of whether the person that claims you’ve violated their copyrighted content is truly the copyright owner of the said content. This takes us to another legal set of rumblings. Here’s what I mean. Person X says that your frog artwork infringes their copyrighted cartoonish frog imagery. Let’s assume that the two are identical looking.
“The Copyright Act’s exceptions and limitations found in sections 107-122 include fair use, the “first sale doctrine,” some reproductions by libraries and archives, certain performances and displays, broadcast programming transmissions by cable and satellite, to name a few. Interested in more information on fair use? Take a look at our Fair Use Index. The complete list of exemptions to copyright protection can be found in Chapter 1 of Title 17 of the United States Code.
But suppose that someone else has a cartoonish copyrighted frog image and they believe that your frog image infringes. I’m sure you would argue that it is the fault of the stock online library and not yours. You would likely also argue that it is the fault of the AI maker. Sure, you can try that. The odds are that you might still be dragged into the mess.Let’s make things murkier. The cartoonish copyrighted frog image is slightly different from the one that you produced via the generative AI.
Here’s the usual path. You are perhaps alleged to have violated someone’s copyright. They sue you. You settle the case by paying them an agreed settlement. Perhaps they were right in their allegation, or perhaps they were wrong, but you might opt to settle and end the dispute. Or you don’t opt to settle the case and instead take the case to court. Undoubtedly, you seek to prevail. The court eventually rules.