When machines create: AI authorship and copyright law

Ryan Abbott and Elizabeth Rothman

Chapter Chapter 29 in Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence, 2025, pp 652-672 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the evolving role of AI in content creation, highlighting technological advancements in AI-generated art, literature, music, software, and web content. It argues that the Copyright Office’s policy of excluding AI-generated works from copyright protection contradicts the public interest focus of American copyright law. The chapter advocates for recognizing AI as functional authors, promoting transparency and efficient allocation of rights to the owners of such AI systems, and contends that protecting AI-generated works will stimulate the development and use of creative AI, leading to an increased production of new works. It also explores the broader implications for copyright law, including issues of infringement, style protection, and fair use, offering insights into how law should adapt to emerging AI capabilities.

Keywords: AI authorship; Allocation of rights; Copyright law; Transparency; Artificial intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035316489
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035316496.00038 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22539_29

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().