J. Richards Article about Copyright Protection for Works Resulting from Some Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the U.S. is Now Available

17 USC 102(a) provides copyright protection for original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

On the question of what is meant by “original”, the U.S. Copyright Office’s Compendium of Copyright Office Practices, Sections 308 and 308.1, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc., 499 U.S. 340 (1991), state that “to qualify for copyright protection, a work must be original to the author,” which means that the work must be “independently created by the author” and it must possess “at least some minimal degree of creativity.” Citing the same decision, the compendium goes on to state the term “independent creation” means that the author created the work without copying from other works but “originality” does not require “novelty.”

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