Applying Copyright Law to Artificial Intelligence
Anna L. Medina · Journal of Science Policy & Governance · 2025
The rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (GAI) have outpaced the existing framework of US copyright law. No clear policies address the ownership of an AI-generated product or require ethical sourcing of training data, a tool used as a preventative measure for copyright infringement. As a result of this legal ambiguity, the U.S. Copyright Office, GAI system providers, content creators, and consumers are at odds with each other over unlicensed data usage and unfair market practices. To address the gap in copyright law and GAI, two policy recommendations are considered for implementation into the United States legislature: a legal amendment of Title 17 of the US Code that defines sufficient human authorship in GAI products and an introduction of the Copyright Transparency and Ethical Sourcing Act (CTESA) that mandates periodic disclosure of training data sources and ethical data sourcing requirements. The CTESA is ultimately chosen due to its feasibility within the current law and its broader impact on intellectual property rights protections.