China’s second local court recognizes the copyright of AI-generated pictures
Introduction
The plaintiff used Midjourney and Photoshop to generate the picture and registered it as a work of art. A local court in China has recognized the copyrightability of AI works and found the defendant to have infringed. This is the second case in which Chinese courts have recognized the copyright of AI works.
Background
Last year, Beijing Internet Court rendered a verdict in China’s first case concerning the copyrightability of AI-generated picture LI v. LIU. In the decision, the Court found that the AI-generated picture was a copyrightable work involving human authorship. This verdict has also attracted global attention.
Yesterday, another AI-generated picture plaintiff shared his winning story on the WeChat platform and released the court's judgment.
The plaintiff's profession is an artificial intelligence generated content (AIGC) designer, and the registered account on the Chinese social e-commerce platform RED is "Tudou. man". Among the multiple AIGC works that have been released, collaborations have included brands such as Mercedes Benz, Est é e Lauder, and McDonald's.
The plaintiff created "Companion Heart" using AI tools on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2023, and published it on the RED platform on the same day. On April 7, 2023, the National Copyright Administration registered the work of "Companion Heart Concept Installation" as an art work, with the completion and first publication date of February 14, 2023. The bottom left corner of the image is marked with a white watermark that reads' ©Visual design from Ai artist Todou_man 2023 '.
The defendants are two companies, one is a real estate company named Qinhong and the other is Gauss Company.
On September 25, 2023, the defendant Gauss Company posted a content and finished product picture on their account on RED, indicating their intention to install a 20 meter heart in a project. On November 18, 2023, the account was re-released and the Love Project has been installed.
The plaintiff believes that the defendant has infringed upon their copyright and therefore filed a lawsuit with the People's Court of Changshu City, Jiangsu Province.
Creation of works
In this case, The plaintiff provides a detailed account of the process of creating this picture.
On February 14, 2024 at 9:17, the plaintiff began to generate and design text and images through Midjourney software.
Firstly, the plaintiff entered keywords such as "On the Huangpu River", "at night", "there is a string of large and small hearts", "floating in the water", "lights", "advanced", "reflection", "4K", "no people", "high details", "reliability", "environmental/Canon EOS 5Diii" into the software, and generated four nighttime images of love balloons by the Huangpu River.
Secondly, the plaintiff continuously adjusted the content of the generated images by modifying keywords such as "there are multiple red love balloons", "there is a huge red love balloon", "lying on the water", "half soaked in water", "rose pets composed of love", "only half of the surface of the water", etc.
Subsequently, due to the generated balloon shape not meeting the requirements, the plaintiff edited it using Photoshop software to form a half balloon shape with a pointed tip to the left and a curved arc to the right, and re imported the produced image into Midjourney software for further design.
After multiple iterations, the plaintiff selected a version of the image and edited it again using Photoshop software. The final draft was completed on February 14, 2024 at 23:40.
Issues
In this case, the court focused on the following issues: (1) Does the plaintiff own the copyright of the work; (2) Has the defendant infringed upon the copyright of the plaintiff's work; (3) The responsibility borne by the defendant.
(1) Does the plaintiff own the copyright of the work
The judge believes that the copyright drafts, original documents, legal publications, copyright registration certificates, certificates issued by certification agencies, and contracts for obtaining rights provided by the plaintiff can be used as evidence. The natural person who signs their name on the work is considered the copyright owner.
However, the copyright works owned by the plaintiff should be limited to the "Companion Heart" graphic art works listed in the attachment of the work registration certificate, rather than the three-dimensional art installation of a half heart.
(2)Has the defendant infringed upon the copyright of the plaintiff's work
The judge believes that the images used by the defendant on the RED platform are highly consistent with the "Companion Heart" images in the comparable parts, with only minor differences such as cropping, erasing some materials, and adding text. The overall composition is essentially similar. Therefore, without the plaintiff's permission, the defendant provided the public with right works through Internet communication, which infringed the plaintiff's right to network communication of works information.
In addition, due to the defendant's failure to truthfully indicate the content of the signature, it infringed upon the plaintiff's right of authorship of the work.
However, for the two defendants who put similar creative ideas to the plaintiff's works into practice through on-site construction and other methods, the judge believes that it does not constitute a reproduction from three-dimensional to three-dimensional, nor does it constitute a reproduction from flat to three-dimensional. Therefore, the plaintiff's claim that the defendant infringed on their right to reproduce and distribute their works is not accepted.
(3) The responsibility borne by the defendant
The plaintiff claims in the lawsuit that the defendant should apologize and compensate for economic losses of 500000 yuan (US$69,000), as well as rights protection expenses of 30000 yuan (US$4,100).
a. Apologize
The defendant Gauss Company used infringing images on multiple platforms without attribution, therefore the judge supports the plaintiff's claim for Gauss Company to apologize. Gauss Company subsequently issued an apology statement on its official website.
However, for the defendant Qinhong Company, the judge believed that its commercial devices did not infringe the plaintiff's copyright, and Qinhong only published links suspected of infringement on WeChat official account, and the relevant articles were short in timeliness and low in damage. Therefore, the judge did not support the plaintiff Qinhong's apology.
b. Damages
The judge determines the compensation for losses based on factors such as the type of work, the level of originality, the difficulty of creation, the popularity of the author and work, the possible costs of creation expenses, reasonable licensing fees, the nature and duration of infringement, and the potential impact on the plaintiff.
The judge believes that the originality and novelty of the work involved are relatively low, and the popularity of the work is not high. Therefore, the comprehensive compensation for the loss is determined to be 1000 yuan (US$137）.
For the expenditure on safeguarding rights, the judge has determined a comprehensive amount of 9000 yuan (US$1,241).
In the end, the acceptance fee for this case is 9105 yuan (US$1,256), with the plaintiff bearing 9055 yuan (US$1,249) and the defendant bearing 50 yuan ((US$7)).
The result is that the plaintiff successfully defended their rights, but received compensation of 945 yuan (US$130) in addition to paying the case acceptance fee.