Can AI be an author? Federal Court asked to decide in new copyright case
CTV
The Federal Court of Canada is being asked to declare that only humans — and not artificial intelligence — can be considered authors under Canada’s copyright law.
The Federal Court of Canada is being asked to declare that only humans — and not artificial intelligence — can be considered authors under Canada’s copyright law.
It’s the first court case in the country testing how the Copyright Act treats artificially generated content, like the text, images and videos created by systems such as ChatGPT.
David Fewer, director and general counsel at the University of Ottawa’s Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, says one of the aims of the clinic’s application is to lay "down in bedrock" that only humans are authors under the law.
The time to do that is now, given the volume of AI-generated content that’s being produced, Fewer said.
AI and copyright are at an inflection point, and we’re at the start of a wave of content "being put before our eyes that was generated by an AI and not by a human," he said.
"It's important at this point, just before this stuff enters the commercial zone in a really serious way, that we get rules down."
Copyright law grants humans powerful rights, Fewer argued, and it’s important that they don’t get extended to "things that aren't human, on things that don't need that incentive scheme, and don't merit the reward that copyright bestows on authors."
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