Comparative study of the copyright protectability of AI generated works with the focus on using the model of collective work

Abstract

As in the recent years artificial intelligence-generated works have been increasing at their fastest pace, the concern of legal experts has been more focused on the adaptation of laws to this phenomenon. It is of importance to determine whether AI-generated content could be protected under copyright laws and if yes, who should be considered as the copyright owner of these works. The goal of this thesis is to examine different possibilities of the copyright owner of the AI-generated works by assessing copyright regulations in the international level and also comparing the EU with the US to find out the standings of each place on this subject. Due to lack of united rules on the protection of AI-generated works, the French proposal on regulation of these works similar to the institution of a collective work was released in 2020, which in this thesis will be evaluated to determine whether it could be a proper solution for legal systems to apply. Currently, AI is not advanced enough to be regarded as a creative author that generates original works totally independently; therefore, using the institution of a collective work by recognizing AI as one of the work authors could be beneficial for the purpose of copyrightability.