The US Copyright Office said in a letter that the pictures made by the AI painting tool Midjournal are not protected by copyright.

According to the United States Copyright Office,the artist Kristina Kashtanova wrote a comic book called”Zarya of the Dawn”.Although the content of the book is protected by copyright,the AI pictures she made with Midjournal are not protected.

Recently,generative AI has become popular,Midjournal,Dall-E and ChatGPT have been popular,and the statement of the United States Copyright Office deserves attention.

Kashtanova submitted an application for copyright registration for her works,and the United States Copyright Office approved the application and registration,but now the Copyright Office has decided to re-register,and the pictures created by non-human authors will be removed from the registration.Kashtanova believes that it is good news to get the copyright of story and picture arrangement,but she and her representative lawyers will stick to their beliefs.They believe that AI pictures express the author’s creativity and should be protected by copyright.

Midjournal is a popular AI tool.When the author gives a text prompt,AI will create pictures.Last October,the United States Copyright Administration told Kashtanova that she would reconsider the copyright registration of books,because Kashtanova did not mention the role played by Midjournal in her application.

The latest letter from the United States Copyright Office pointed out that the text and element arrangement in the book are protected by copyright.As for the pictures in the book,Kashtanova is not the planner.The letter explained:”In fact,the specific output of Midjournal is unpredictable by users.From the perspective of copyright,Midjournal is significantly different from other tools used by artists.”