Law360 Quotes Del Pizzo on Recent AI Ruling

Law360 quoted Nancy Del Pizzo in its article, “Copyright Decision On AI-Generated Art Is Just The Beginning.” The article discusses the recent D.C. federal court decision holding that copyright protection is only available to human authors, not works created by artificial intelligence (AI).

Del Pizzo highlighted the implications of the decision, which point to a roadmap of how one might qualify for copyright protection even if AI is used to create the work. In the decision, Stephen Thaler v. Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, 22-cv-1564 (D.C. August 18, 2023), plaintiff used his artificial intelligence program, “Creativity Machine,” to generate visual art, which he then sought to register with the U.S. Copyright Office. Registration was denied on the basis that the work lacked human authorship. Plaintiff filed a lawsuit to challenge that decision, and the Court upheld the Copyright Office’s determination. However, in the opinion, the Court analogized the possible use of AI to the use of a camera, noting that photographs are copyrightable and highlighting possibilities that AI could be used as a “tool” much like a camera, and thereby a work generated using AI could be copyrightable.