Who Owns AI-Generated Content? Copyright Challenges in the Entertainment Industry

The entertainment industry is being transformed by Artificial Intelligence or "A.I."; which has an impact on every aspect of entertainment across the globe. AI-created music, movies, and other types of art (including the production of digital art) are examples of how AI provides new ways for people working in the entertainment industry to produce new and unique creative projects. As a result, an increasing number of content creators and production companies are using A.I.-powered tools to streamline and enhance their ability to create content. The ability to produce usable content via A.I. creates significant efficiencies in content workflow and new avenues for creators to be creative; however, it also raises significant legal concerns regarding the ownership of works created by A.I. Many discussions on current A.I. trends are centered around the issue of who owns A.I. works, what types of legal protection (e.g., copyright or trademark) are available for A.I.-generated works and how those types of protections apply. Current global intellectual property (IP) laws were created primarily to protect the intellectual property of individuals (i.e., humans), therefore, they provide little or no clarity on how A.I. works fit into the expansive puzzle of intellectual property protection. The Rise of AI in the Entertainment Industry The ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to generate different forms of media, such as songs, realistic digital art, edited movies, scripts and celebrity voices, is a significant advancement in today's culture. There are also now synthetic actors that can be applied in the generated content. Production companies, advertising agencies, video game developers and streaming services continue to integrate generative AI into their workflows to help them lower costs and increase the speed of producing content. Generative AI can produce works of creativity in several ways, including: • Movie scripts from a provided prompt; • Background music/soundtracks; • Animation/visual effects; • Voice dubbing and localization; and • Realistic digital people/influencers. Although using generative-created work is often advantageous from a financial perspective, the present-day question of who owns the rights to these works has very few definitive answers. Copyright Law and the Requirement of Human Authorship Almost every jurisdiction within the world and every copyright system across the globe only grants copyright in “original works” created by an author (and this is commonly referred to as an “author” and creates an original work made by a human). In India, according to the Copyright Act of 1957, an “author” has been defined under Section 2 (d) of the Copyright Act based on what has been created via their to create or produce work. The Copyright Act in India does not address or contain any statutory languages that grant copyrights to autonomous (AI) works. Also, many courts in different nations in the USA/EU have historically ruled that in most cases that copyright protection is generally limited in nature and to copyrights that have been created primarily by way of meaningful human creativity. Thus the United States Copyright Office has often stated that autonomous works of artificial intelligence alone without at least some degree of meaningful human creativity associated with them cannot be protected by copyright. Ultimately, generative artificial intelligence technologies create a legal void – or no such existing legal entity – for the use within the entertainment industry of generative AI technologies. Key Ownership Challenges in AI-Generated Content There is a significant amount of uncertainty with respect to who is going to be considered the "author" of the content that is generated by using artificial intelligence. For instance, in the case of a film-maker who used an artificial intelligence system to create a screenplay for use in a film, there are a number of different issues that arise with regard to whether the film-maker is going to have ownership of the screenplay, whether the company that created the artificial intelligence system is still going to retain rights to the output of the artificial intelligence system, and whether the screenplay will be subject to public domain protections. Copyright Infringement Risks During AI Training: AI systems are trained using large sets of data, which often include copyrighted material such as music, films, scripts, photographs, and artistic creations taken from the internet; therefore, this has led to increasing litigation in many parts of the world against A.I. developers. The copyright owner to the copyrighted works used to train the A.I. model (such as the artist, musician, or writer) is being accused by A.I. companies for unlawfully using their copyrighted works without their prior consent or licensing for training purposes. The entertainment industry will be particularly sensitive to this issue because the copyrighted content constitutes the core commercial asset of creators. The ongoing international lawsuits against generative A.I. companies demonstrate the potential for the development of very significant copyright jurisprudence in the future. Deepfakes and Personality Rights : Concerns about identity theft and the misuse of a person's digital identity have also emerged as a result of the use of AI-driven content. Deepfake technology allows individuals to create a video that resembles another person's face or voice without the individual's consent or approval. As a result, actors, musicians and other influencers are becoming more vulnerable to unauthorized digital clones of themselves due to the extensive use of the Internet, social media and AI technologies. Some of the potential consequences of these unauthorized digital clones may be: • Violations of publicity and personality rights. • Claims of defamation. • Passing off and false endorsements. • Violations of data protection/privacy law. As a result of this increasing use of AI-driven impersonations, many people in the entertainment industry have called for greater regulation regarding these types of AI-generated impersonations. Ownership Under Contractual Agreements Currently, determining the ownership of AI-generated content is so complex and there is such a lack of law and regulation that entertainment companies have to increasingly rely on contractual relationships to ascertain the ownership of AI-generated content. Entertainment companies are increasingly using contracts to clarify key areas of ownership related to AI-created work, including: • Ownership of AI-assisted works • Rights to license AI-created works • Liability for infringement claims • Use of synthetic voices/digital recreation • Confidentiality/data usage Appropriately drafting contracts will help mitigate uncertainty while also creating a clear allocation of risk between the creators of content, the producers of content and the provider of AI created technologies. International Developments Around the globe, there are different ways that jurisdictions approach AI-created works. Under United Kingdom law, copyright is limited to the protection of 'computer-generated works'. In this case, the attribution of authorship is made to the person responsible for making the arrangements necessary for creating the work. This position is complicated and contentious about how it is interpreted in practice. The EU currently focuses its policies on AI accountability, transparency and disclosure obligations under the EU AI Act. However, the USA remains focused on human ingenuity as a condition for protection of copyright. India is expected to face similar regulatory responses because of concerns surrounding deepfake technology, misinformation and impersonation digitally. The Future of Entertainment Law in the AI Era Undoubtedly, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the entertainment ecosystem, while legal systems around the world struggle to keep pace with technological advances. Urgent legislative and judicial clarification is required on issues of authorship, originality, infringement, or liability. Going into the future, the entertainment industry will likely develop into a dual model: • The emphasis of copyright protection will be on human contributions; • AI-generated works will be subject to contracts; • Licensing models will need to be developed for AI training data sets; • Stronger legal protections for personality rights; • A requirement for regulatory compliance to deploy AI. Conclusion One of the major intellectual property issues in today's digital age is about owning products of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is changing how we make movies, record music, create games, promote products, and produce digital content. As a result, the entertainment industry faces a rapidly-changing legal environment. Until we have more defined regulations, creators, producers, streaming services, and developers of AI must take the initiative to solve the copyright, licensing, and liability dilemmas that will arise by creating detailed contracts and using compliance systems to address potential problems. A Over the next several years, the convergence of artificial intelligence and entertainment law will be an important factor in determining how future generations will define creative expression, innovation, and intellectual property rights throughout the world.