AI’s Complex Relationship With IP – Copyright

Japan’s engagement with AI technologies presents new
challenges for copyright law, particularly as generative AI becomes
more prevalent. The core issue lies in the ambiguity of applying
existing copyright laws to AI-generated content, which raises
questions about copyright infringement and the extent of protection
offered. Three main areas are affected:

Learning/Development Stage:

The use of copyrighted material in training AI typically
doesn’t constitute infringement under the 2018 amendment
(Article 30-4 of the Copyright Act). This provision allows for the
use of copyrighted works for purposes beyond personal enjoyment,
like data analysis, as long as it doesn’t unreasonably
prejudice the interests of the copyright owner. Nonetheless, the
ambiguity in defining ‘unreasonable prejudice’ complicates
the process of assessing infringement.

Generation/Utilisation Stage:

To establish copyright infringement, two key factors are
considered: the similarity of the work and its reliance on an
existing work. Typically, reliance is deduced from the degree of
similarity, with the assumption that significant similarity implies
dependence. However, unique aspects of AI-generated content that
closely mimic copyrighted works without explicit reliance on an
existing work complicate legal judgments. There is also the problem
that if pirated or other illegally uploaded copyrighted works are
widely used as training data for generative AI, copyright
infringement may be encouraged.

Copyrightability:

The Copyright Act protects human creative expression, often
excluding AI-generated content from copyright. However, there is
potential for recognising human creative involvement in AI
creations, such as in the crafting of prompts or the selection of
outputs. Yet, establishing clear criteria for this recognition and
the extent of copyrightability remains a challenge. Complicating
matters further is the difficulty in distinguishing between content
created by AI and that by humans.

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