Jiangsu court rules AI-generated image copyrightable with human creative input
A Jiangsu court ruled in China's first AIGC copyright dispute that an image generated using Midjourney and manually edited by the creator is copyrightable because it reflects the creator's original intellectual input. The court ordered defendants who republished the image to apologize and pay damages, but ruled that a three-dimensional installation based on the same concept did not infringe the copyright.
What happened
In February 2023, Lin Chen used AI software Midjourney to create a text-to-image work titled "Companionship" by entering multiple prompts and iterating the image, then manually editing the image details using photo editing software. Lin Chen published the work on her Xiaohongshu account and registered it as a fine art work with China's National Copyright Administration in April 2023.
In November 2023, a Hangzhou technology company published videos and images of heart-shaped balloon installations on social media that were highly similar to Lin Chen's work, differing only in aspect ratio, balloon surface text, and reflections. A Changsu real estate company used one of these images in a WeChat post and constructed a three-dimensional heart-shaped balloon installation in a commercial district lakeside area.
Lin Chen sued both companies in Changshu City People's Court, claiming copyright infringement and demanding three days of public apologies on Xiaohongshu and compensation for economic loss and reasonable expenses.
Reported impact
The court determined that copyright protection for AI-generated works depends on whether human creative intellectual input is reflected in the work.
Index analysis
The court examined Midjourney's user agreement and confirmed that users retain ownership rights to works created using the platform. The court reviewed the user's login process, account information, and prompt modification logs to assess the creative process.
The court found that Lin Chen's modifications to the prompts and manual editing of image details through photo editing software demonstrated unique selection and arrangement, making the resulting image original and therefore copyrightable. The court ruled that Lin Chen's copyright was limited to the two-dimensional image, and the real estate company's three-dimensional physical installation design did not constitute copyright infringement.
Governance controls
The court's intellectual property division identified that copyright protection for AI-generated content depends on the creator's independent intellectual input and originality under China's Copyright Law, which defines a work as an intellectual achievement with originality that can be expressed in a certain form.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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