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Copyright
Disclaimer: This information is not legal advise. The creators of the Librarian AI Resource are not lawyers.
Copyright by itself is a complex and difficult issue to understand, and adding AI to the mix only makes it harder. The U.S. Copyright office is the deciding body concerning the copyright-ability of AI generated works; even now, the U.S. Copyright office continues to consider the legality of AI materials.
- Copyright and Artificial Intelligence by U.S. Copyright Office
- Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence by U.S. Copyright Office
- US Copyright Office on AI: Human creativity still matters, legally by Miriam Lord, Assoc. Reg. of Copyrights & Dir. of Public Info. and Edu., US Copyright Office
- Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law by Zirpoli, Christopher T.
According to the U.S. Copyright office, copyright decisions are made on a case-by-case basis but the Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence clarifies that:
- Copyright is limited to works "created by a human being"1
- Copyright can be applied to GenAI outputs "only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements."2
You can follow and keep up to date on AI Copyright lawsuits at WIRED's Every AI Copyright Lawsuit in the US, Visualized by Kate Knibbs
1. Zirpoli, Christopher T. (February 24, 2023). "Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law."1 Congressional Research Service
2. Padmanabhan, A. (2025, February 6). Inside the Copyright Office's Report, Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability. Library of Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/copyright/2025/02/inside-the-copyright-office-report-copyright-and-artificial-intelligence-part-2-copyrightability/
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