The fight over copyright: what you need to know
The majority of those who engage in copyright/trademark infringement are United States citizens who have little or no prior criminal record.
October 2, 2022
In light of newly-generated AI images, the basis of copyright ownership has once again come into question. Copyright ownership gives an owner, with some restrictions, the sole right to use an original work.
“‘Copyright is extremely important and concerns businesses and other areas because of the punishments for it,” said DECA member Chriag Kalugakar (‘24).
Copyright infringements can have punishments and, oftentimes, result in fines. This forces journalists to face additional obstacles when creating segments and articles. However, copyright is assumed to be easily avoidable by being conscious of it when producing various pieces of work.
“When I was a student at AVJ last year, I had to be aware of copyright because it could result in a $500 fine. It was not a big issue, because I avoided it by not plagiarizing and using images that I took rather than using images from the web,” said Mikail Mirza (‘23).
On the more global side, Getty Images, a well known media company, announced that they would not use AI image creation tools due to the fear of potential copyright disputes.
“We are being proactive to the benefit of our customers,” said the CEO of Getty Images Craig Peters.
Also, programmer and artist Kris Kashtanova announced that Zarya of the Dawn, an AI-generated graphic novel, has been registered for U.S. copyright. It is the first item produced utilizing AI-art generators to be recognized by the U.S. Copyright Office.
“I think that it is very disappointing that artists using AI-generation tools to help them have to worry about copyright,” said Kazuya Yasui (‘24).
Ultimately, copyright has come back into question, particularly in regards to AI development and company usage of certain types of media. Many commentators have cited that only time will tell where copyright ownership stands in the modernized and computer-driven world of tomorrow.
“I never had any issues with copyright. All I had to do was cite my sources, not plagiarize, and use my own images and I never had to deal with the consequences of it,” said Yasui.
