Generative AI, Intellectual Property, and Copyright Law

To learn more about the legal implications of generative AI’s use of copyrighted works, we sat down with Dr Wellett Potter from UNE who specialises in copyright law and intellectual property.

Dr Potter explains that one of the ways we can look at AI generated content is as derivative works.

“We’ve got this notion of what is called a derivative work in intellectual property, and derivative work is basically a newly created work, or it’s a work that is derived from one or more already existing works.”

Dr Potter goes on to explain how this relates to copyright and the protection of intellectual property.

“If we take that definition and apply it to generative AI, we could say that generative AI is a platform which creates derivative works and of course, in terms of the law, the actual right to prepare a derivative work, the actual copyright belongs exclusively to the copyright owner of the particular work that is taken to produce the derivative work.”

“So in that way, if a work that is copyright protected is used without an owner’s permission, then in that way, infringement has occurred.”

You can read more from Dr Potter here.

Photo by Conny Schneider on Unsplash