"The agency ruled that the AI-generated image, titled "A Recent Entrance to Paradise" (2012), was not eligible for registration in 2019 because it didn't meet the Office's "human authorship" requirement. Thaler's 2020 and 2022 appeals to the agency were both rejected, and he filed a lawsuit against Shira Perlmutter, the register of copyrights and the director of the Copyright Office, shortly after the second rejection."
"In 2023, the District Court judge presiding over the case argued that "human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright." Undeterred, Thaler invoked the Court of Appeals, which also upheld the Copyright Office's decision in 2025."
Computer scientist Stephen Thaler has pursued a years-long legal battle to secure copyright protection for an AI-generated image titled "A Recent Entrance to Paradise," created by his AI system called "Creativity Machine." The US Copyright Office denied registration in 2019, citing a requirement for human authorship. Thaler's subsequent appeals to the Copyright Office in 2020 and 2022 were rejected, leading him to file a lawsuit against the Copyright Office's register. Both the District Court in 2023 and the Court of Appeals in 2025 upheld the Copyright Office's decision, affirming that human authorship is a fundamental requirement for copyright protection. The Supreme Court's recent refusal to hear Thaler's appeal leaves the lower courts' rulings intact.
Read at Hyperallergic
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