AI & Copyright Laws

Artificial intelligence is the hottest topic right now. There are so many questions surrounding the technology that can create art, text, and even advertisement scripts based on certain actors’ personas. One thing that not a lot of people have talked about are the issues surrounding AI creations and copyright laws. Since it’s such a new territory these waters haven’t really been explored yet but there is some buzz starting to circulate around it. Think about this, AI is trained to search massive data pools that surround the parameters it’s given to create something. These works are from real people in the real world. Plagiarism is a concern when writing essays, so why wouldn’t copyright laws apply as well?  People are starting to look into the ownership of AI generated works and whether or not AI should be references the sources and/or getting permission in some cases. There is a lawsuit that was filed in 2022 from three artists suing an AI generator for using their art for a digital collage tool without permission. The argument is that the fair use doctrine says it can be used for “research” purposes without permission. There is also the question of AI generated works and who owns the copyright to that. A lot of jurisdictions state that anything not created by a human cannot be protected by copyright laws. Spain and Germany follow this currently. This could cause problems for business, however, because they could be used by anyone. Companies won’t spend a lot of time and effort putting work into AI generated works if just anyone can come along and steal them. Should the copyright laws include those programmers, etc. who help create the AI work? We think not. That’s like saying the pen is the creator and not the writer. Should computers be given the same rights as humans when it comes to copyright laws? The future of AI will determine the next steps, which seems not that far off. Perhaps granting the person who made the AI possible as the UK is already doing seems the most realistic approach for the time being.  It’s mind blowing to think that what we thought of as the very far sci-fy version of reality 20 years ago is now the truth of our world.

The Legal Side of Sourced Content

Obtaining sourced content can come with a dark side. We find it interesting that so many articles found on the internet state that using sourced content is actually free. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Users are protected by U.S. Copyright Laws. The content that they create is considered to be their intellectual property and permissions must be granted from the owner of a video or photo. This also means that anyone seen in the video or photo must give permission for use as well. There is also something called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that criminalizes production and publication of technology, devices, or services intended to bypass measures that control access to copyrighted works (Wikipedia). Basically, it’s a copyright law intended for the digital world that protects website operators but not the speakers. For example, if I posted a user generated videos in a commercial that I edited on my home computer with sourced content and did not get permission from the video owners, they can come after me but not the social media platform itself if that makes sense. This is why getting the proper licensing for videos is vital! Permission must be granted from the copyright owner and releases obtained from anyone in the videos, photos, or even audio tracks. Having professionals source videos for ad agencies that don’t specialize in the field is tricky business. Indemnification for the license of the content should be obtained in a case of a situation where someone falsely claims content that was not theirs by copyright. This is where companies that specialize in UGC, such as us, come in handy. We have a very strict verification process and are able to identify red flags early one during the clearance process. This allows us to protect our client partners from any legal issues so that they’re commercials are free of any liability. Since this type of advertising space is fairly new the waters are still being navigated by most but our founder and CEO has almost 20 years of experience with licensing and agreements in the sourced content field. Legal issues are no