Artist Appeals Copyright Denial For Prize-Winning AI-Generated Work

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Jason Allen-a synthetic media artist whose Midjourney-generated work 'Theatre D'opera Spatial' went viral and incited backlash after winning a state fair art competition-is not giving up his fight with the US Copyright Office. Last fall, the Copyright Office refused to register Allen's work, claiming that almost the entire work was AI-generated and insisting that copyright registration requires more human authorship than simply plugging a prompt into Midjourney. Allen is now appealing (PDF) that decision, asking for judicial review and alleging that 'the negative media attention surrounding the Work may have influenced the Copyright Office Examiner's perception and judgment.' He claims that the Examiner was biased and considered 'improper factors' such as the public backlash when concluding that he had 'no control over how the artificial intelligence tool analyzed, interpreted, or responded to these prompts.'

As Allen sees it, a rule establishing a review process requiring an Examiner to determine which parts of the work are human-authored seems 'entirely arbitrary' since some Copyright Examiners 'may not even be able to distinguish an artwork that used AI tools to assist in the creation from one which does not use any computerized tools.' Further, Allen claims that the denial of copyright for his work has inspired confusion about who owns rights to not just Midjourney-generated art but all AI art, and as AI technology rapidly improves, it will only become harder for the Copyright Office to make those authorship judgment calls. That becomes an even bigger problem if the Copyright Office gets it wrong too often, Allen warned, running the risk of turning every artist registering works into a 'suspect' and potentially bogging courts down with copyright disputes. Ultimately, Allen is hoping that a jury reviewing his appeal will reverse the denial, arguing that there is more human authorship in his AI-generated work than the Copyright Office considered when twice rejecting his registration.

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