Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

How D.C. Fed. Court Denied Copyright to AI-Created Artwork

By Robert W. Clarida and Thomas Kjellberg
October 01, 2023

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently upheld a final refusal by the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) to register a visual work entitled "A Recent Entrance to Paradise." According to the application filed with the USCO by plaintiff Stephen Thaler, the image was not the product of human authorship but was instead "autonomously created by a computer algorithm running on a machine," which the plaintiff called the Creativity Machine and identified as the "author" of the work. The plaintiff named himself as the copyright claimant, however, on the basis that he was the "owner of the machine."

The USCO refused to register the work in August 2019 because it "lack[ed] the human authorship necessary to support a copyright claim." This refusal was affirmed, on the same reasoning, through the internal appeals process within USCO. A final refusal by the Copyright Review Board on Feb. 14, 2022, led Thaler to file an action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. §706(2), claiming that the USCO's actions were "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with the law, unsupported by substantial evidence and in excess of [USCO's] statutory authority."

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough Image

There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.

Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It Image

Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?

Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs Image

A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.

A Lawyer's System for Active Reading Image

Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.

Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners Image

Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.