In a world where writings and art are generated by Artificial Intelligence can copyright exist?
I write this as a concerned striking Sag Aftra actor, writer, film maker, screen writer and artist.
From the United Stated Construction:
Article I Section 8 | Clause 8 – Patent and Copyright Clause of the Constitution. [The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
This section from the Constitution is the basis of America’s copyright generated income. It is the foundation of an entire economic sector and is the bread and butter of millions of people. Copyright generated billions of dollars for the United States economy. But what if no one could make money from ideas? What if everything was handed over to artificial intelligence to create all the things we read and see? Who gets the money from the income generated?
The above section of the constitution stated that Congress can make laws to ensure authors and inventors have “the exclusive right to their writings and discoveries.” Basically that means that individuals who create copyrightable or patented products own them for a “limited time” defined by Congress to generate money. This economic right is not in the Bill of Rights. It is in the very fabric of the construction that governs how our system works. Congress has passed laws that dictate when copyright ends. But it has always been my understanding that time limit is based on the “life” of the person who first created the works. A life. Does artificial intelligence have a life?
Creations that lose their copyright status, who ever created them has died and it has been X years since their death. For purposes of simplification and because I am not a licensed attorney but a resigned lawyer, I am not going into the details. I just have a lot of questions that I think the art world and lawyers who support artists, writers, inventors, and all creatives should be thinking about and want to express my concern about the biggest elephant in the room when it comes to anyone seeking to use artificial intelligence to generate creative material from A.I. Can A.I. generated material be copyrighted when there is not a “living person” actually doing the creation? How long does that copyright last? And well I would argue that works created by artificial intelligence are a waste of time for studios that depend on the value of a copyright to generate revenue. If a creation made by a machine cannot be copyrighted then anyone can use it, steal it, make a derivative of it. Also artificial intelligence is only as smart as the knowledge already out there. So if it creates a script based on ideas in the public domain, those same building blocks can be created by a living person to. And that person can copyright the work. I do not think you can own a copyright to something without having a living breathing human attached to it as the inventor or author.
Disney is going to lose the copyright to its first version of Mickey Mouse, next year. Unless they can get Congress to change the laws, again, about duration of copyright. I hope Congress and the government lets the current law stand and tells Disney- you cannot hold knowledge forever.
The founding fathers were rather brilliant. They wanted human intelligence in America to expand, but also allow creative intelligent people to have the benefits of their talents and gifts. They wanted an author or inventor to be able to make a living and to benefit their children as well. But they also knew that knowledge held exclusively in the hands of one person created stagnation in growth and also was too much like the Royalty system of England, with special privileged people holding all the power. I see this in my own union with its attitude that “I AM JUST BACKGROUND.” Really. Because if I had been allowed to participate with the UNION and not subjected to abuse and slander, I might have told CRABTREE IRELAND that ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE product cannot be filed with the COPYRIGHT OFFICE.
Companies like DISNEY are getting desperate because the very bread and butter that was the income foundation, their copyrights, are all falling into the public domain in the next ten to twenty years. Granted they have been gaining other licenses and works, but what is DISNEY if anyone can use MICKEY MOUSE as they please. So they are grasping for sources of income and have become blinded by the idea that artificial intelligence might be a cheap alternative to having to pay people to create stuff. Well ask your lawyers about the copyright for these artificially created works? Who is the author and inventor that is the basis of copyright? Before you say that the creator of the program is the author. No. He or she is the inventor and holds the patent. But not the copyright owner.
Without a living author or inventor, artificial intelligence is just a tool to perhaps help create but it cannot be the sole creator or the work is open to infringement and use.
CRABTREE IRELAND- I hate you for what you did to me. I want to sue you for every opportunity I lost because you wanted to make me practice law. You and my law school are monsters. I had cancer. I had been molsted. I sucked at being a lawyer. I was more qualified and skilled at acting and creative endeavors. I would have ended up a secretary or paralegal in a law office traumatized and abused and hating my job and the people in my world. In fact you would have put me in a position where I woudl have committed suicide. I know that. And I am not a child. I am not saying that to get attention or sympathy I am saying that because it is the turth, and you are a egomanic who never even bothred to think I might be not just an extra. I do not want to be with LAWYERS. AND FRANCINE FISHER- STOP YOUR SLANDER AND GAS LIGHTING. I am not background. I am not here to be shit on by you because you hate me because I do not believe MARIANE WILLIAMSON should be PRESIDENT. Do you understand what I am trying to say? I a person who is a resigned lawyer, is telling you that ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE cannot hold a copyright and neither can a corporation. Not really. Not forever. The studios cannot create. I am so sick of over sized egos and the fact AMERICA feeds egos when it was created to be a country without ROYALTY. Without people thinking they are GODS or KINGS. I am more gifted and intelligence than most. But I also am wise enough to know- I am phycially flawed and there is no such thing are perfection. We all will be the food of worms in the end.
