Creativity and Copyright
Creativity is at the heart of all artistic achievements. It is nurtured by human touch and imagination. One cannot exist without the other; they are organically connected in a symbiosis of originality and authenticity. Art mediums can differ from one artist to another, but the final result will remain a pure representation of a person’s perception of the world, a personal life experience, a storytelling, all inspired by the artist’s creative genius. This is how the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) defines “original works” (in its Article 2), as a condition to be protected under Copyright Law: “It deals with the protection of works and the rights of their authors. It provides creators such as authors, musicians, poets, painters, etc., with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms.” Knowing that these rights must be considered as exclusive rights of authorization.
Copyright (or author’s right) represents the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works protected by copyright vary from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and movies. On the one hand, the artist obtains economic rights, which allow him to protect his work, be the rights owner, and yield financial rewards from the use of his art by others. On the other hand, he benefits from moral rights by claiming work authorship.
In this day and age where Artificial Intelligence is making big leaps in innovation, the main problem becomes knowing which work is eligible for protection under Copyright. Can an artwork, made with the assistance of technology or generative AI, be protected in terms of Copyright? In other words, can AI-generated Art be “copyrightable” in the realm of Intellectual Property? Human or Machine? That is the question.
Art, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Copyright
During the year 2023, exhibitions and workshops in art museums highlighted innovative artwork produced by AI by emphasizing conceptualization, visualization, and animation of art. For a creative work to be granted Copyright, two conditions have to be met: The Human Authorship requirement and the Originality requirement. Meeting the human authorship requirement depends on whether artwork contains sufficient human contribution. In other words, a work exclusively generated by AI cannot meet this condition and, therefore, cannot be copyrightable.
What makes an artwork original is the artist’s unique feelings and emotions, in space and time, being expressed with a personal touch. Originality is closely related to uniqueness, the fact that an artwork resembles no other, and the fact that it is made by an artist that also resembles no other is key to its originality. This is to be contrasted with AI artwork, which is the product of an algorithm that, no matter how advanced the technology is, remains a series of lines of programming code displayed in pixels on a screen and translates to zeroes and ones inside a computer processor.
Does AI-generated art fall under the umbrella of “art”? The question remains debatable. Can “Art-ificial” be “Art-istic”? Art is the process of giving birth to an emotion using material tools and techniques. No matter what tools and techniques are used, if the emotion is absent, there is no art anymore, as the art essence is purely human based on Creativity, Aesthetics, and Imagination.
AI cannot produce innovation; it can only use approximation tools and reconstitutions of preexisting materials: “Today, we are in the throes of a technological revolution that may require us to rethink the interaction between computers and the creative process.” In many Arab countries, an original work of authorship should be created by a human to be registered, and an artist’s Intellectual Property rights (IPR) have to be protected in the digital transformation where using Virtual Reality (VR) and Metaverse technologies is increasing in the Art domain. Many court decisions in the world consider that Copyright law only protects “the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the mind.”
QSTP is Located in Qatar Foundation’s Education City, where it has unparalleled access to a large number of research universities. The members of QSTP are collectively committed to investing in new technology development programs, creating intellectual property, enhancing technology management skills and developing innovative new products. QSTP is increasingly recognized as an international hub for applied research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Contact Our Team ›WIPO, Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/
