Copyright Office AI Guidance
U.S. Copyright Office — Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Reports and Registration Guidance
United States · 17 U.S.C. § 102; U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright and AI Reports (2024–2025)
- Status
- In effect
- Applies to
- Copyright registration applicants (must disclose AI-generated content); AI developers indirectly via training/fair-use analysis
- Enforced by
- U.S. Copyright Office (registration practice); federal courts (infringement)
The U.S. Copyright Office has ruled that purely AI-generated works cannot be copyrighted — human creativity is required, and typing prompts alone is not enough. Its multi-part AI report covers digital replicas (2024), copyrightability of AI outputs (Jan 2025), and AI training on copyrighted works (May 2025 pre-publication). Whether AI training is fair use is being decided in ongoing litigation.
Who is protected: Human authors and rights holders; applicants for copyright registration
Legal detail
Copyright Office registration guidance (88 Fed. Reg. 16190 (2023)) and its Copyright and AI Report interpret 17 U.S.C. § 102's human-authorship requirement: AI-generated material is registrable only to the extent of human creative contribution; Part 3 (training data/fair use) was released in pre-publication form May 9, 2025.
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | United States |
|---|---|
| Level | Federal |
| Strength | Limited |
| Citation | 17 U.S.C. § 102; U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright and AI Reports (2024–2025) |
| Private right of action | Yes, individuals can sue |
| Penalties | Refusal or cancellation of registration; infringement remedies under Title 17 |
| Topics | copyright and training data · AI-generated images · AI disclosure and transparency |
| Agency page | Copyright and Artificial Intelligence | U.S. Copyright Office |
More AI rules in United States
- Trump AI Innovation & Security EO (June 2026) · In effect
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- Chatrie v. United States (Fourth Amendment protection for location… · Blocked / in litigation
- Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS Act) (H.R. 7757) · Proposed / pending
- NAIC AI Evaluation Tool Pilot (12 states, 2026) · Proposed / pending
- FTC Proposed Policy Statement — AI Accuracy (July 2026) · Proposed / pending
Related copyright and training data rules elsewhere
- New York Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act (2026) · Proposed / pending
- NYT v. OpenAI / Microsoft · Blocked / in litigation
- Authors Guild v. OpenAI · Blocked / in litigation
- Tremblay v. OpenAI · Blocked / in litigation
- Silverman v. OpenAI · Blocked / in litigation
- Kadrey v. Meta · Blocked / in litigation
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