AI GENERATED WORKS AND COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
Yurii Burylo · Entrepreneurship Economy and Law · 2022
The purpose of the article is to find the most promising and practical way of applying copyright to AI generated works, taking into account the objectives of copyright law and technological progress. Research methods.The methodology of this study includes analytical, comparative and dialectic methods of scientific research. Results.Due to the human-centered approach to authorship, the existing copyright legislation of most countries cannot provide protection for AI generated works.Even the concept of computer-generated works, implemented in the legislation of some countries, cannot fully resolve all complex issues concerning AI generated works, because it confers copyright on those, who design and operate AI systems.At the same time, another concept, proposed for AI generated works, regards such works as public property (public domain), which may be good for the general public, but not good for those who create and operate AI systems.As for the novel concept of electronic persons, providing legal personality for autonomous AI systems, this approach is quite flexible as it allows giving copyright to an AI system itself and enables the owner of such a system to control the exercise of copyright by this system.However, it may still take a while before this concept is finally appreciated and implemented.In fact, it may even require reaching the next stage of AI development, namely Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Conclusions.At present, copyright law does not protect AI-generated works in most countries.Only a few countries have copyright legislation on computer-generated works applying to the works created by AI systems.According to this legislation, copyright is given to those who have undertaken the necessary arrangements in order for the computer to produce the works.Even though this approach protects the economic interests of those who design and operate AI systems, it cannot always provide a fair allocation of copyrights in situations, involving a large number of stakeholders, due to the complexity of such systems.Another idea is to treat AI generated works as public property (public domain).However, it cannot have a wide application, as it lacks the incentives for those who design and operate AI systems.In theory, it is also possible to give autonomous AI systems their own legal personhood enabling them to become copyright owners.In this case, autonomous AI systems with the legal status of electronic persons could be recognized as authors of the works they generated.This flexible approach also enables the owners of AI systems to control the exercise copyrights belonging to such systems.Although it is unclear if the concept of electronic person can be implemented at this point, it is quite likely to be recognized when the stage of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is reached.