Pointed via the Ankler, a fed judge rules against Monster Thaler yet again.
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A federal judge on Friday upheld a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office that a piece of art created by AI is not open to protection. The ruling was delivered in an order turning down Stephen Thaler’s bid challenging the government’s position refusing to register works made by AI. Copyright law has “never stretched so far” to “protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found. The opinion stressed, “Human authorship is a bedrock requirement.”
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This should give a tailwind to the striking actors and writers. Studios rely heavily on copyright to block competition. If they can’t copyright this theft, they might be slightly less likely to use it.
Of course Thaler will continue appealing all the way up the chain, since he has unlimited funding from “somewhere”.
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After reading the full opinion, it seems like the judge missed one important point. Copyrights and patents are about MONEY, not abstract ownership or authorship. The purpose of registering IP is to MAKE MONEY from the product. This rule automatically factors out ALL possible tools, from a pencil to a potter’s wheel to a camera to a lithographic press to Paintshop to Poser to AI. The tool doesn’t receive royalties. The human being who manipulates the tool receives royalties. Thus the human manipulator is the only possible owner of the IP.
Polistra's Mill 