Artificial Intelligence vs Copyright Law – a Question about the Result of a Clash between Them. Is it Mere Futurology or the Imminent Future?

Abstract

This research paper concerns the copyright-law consequences of generating literary and artistic creations resulting from the “creative activity” of artificial intelligence (AI). The essence of the problem that rapidly gains practical significance boils down to the question whether, at present (de lege lata) and in the future (de lege ferenda), such creations can be protected under copyright law and who should possibly be considered to be the author. The legal-dogmatic analysis of the normative matter, the current state of science and the case law in force applicable here, shows that under the current legislation the creations generated by AI do not fall within the definition of creative work and do not form the subject of copyright as they were not created by human being. Therefore, the AI may not be considered to be the author and thus endowed with a copyright and even more a moral right to the work. In the de lege ferenda perspective, the proposals to cover AI-generated assets by protection outside the copyright law area, e.g. through related rights or the institution of work made for hire, are not fully convincing for axiological reasons, i.e. the difficulty of identifying a person who deserves to benefit from such protection. Nor can the proposal to grant subjective rights to AI itself be supported, since this would mean changing the axiom of the copyright law, namely that only a human being can be the author. If copyright is to survive as a right of a human creator, which should be advocated, then in the light of this regulation the literary and artistic creations generated by AI should remain in the public domain.