How Does Copyright Law Work if a Human Rewrites an AI Script?
Hollywood is learning what can and cannot be protected in real-time.
'2001: A Space Odyssey'
One of the main current worries of writers all over Hollywood was that studios would try to replace them with AI writers. But the more we studied AI, and the more courts ruled in our favor when it came to AI-written screenplays, it felt like things were going to be okay.
But come on, did we really think that one battle won means that the war would be over?
Let's get into some facts.
Presently, the U.S. Copyright Office has said that the majority of work generated by AI lacks eligibility for copyright protection. But in cases where an AI has contributed to a piece, copyright could potentially be applicable if a human has "chosen or organized" the AI-generated content in a manner that exhibits a level of creativity deemed to be an original creation.
This definitely piqued the interest of studios and writers when this came out.
Here's how it applies to Hollywood.
The AMPTP leaked a deal they were offering the WGA this week, and in it, there were protections for writers on AI. But what they also snuck in there was the ability to have AI writer scripts and then to have writers rewrite them for a larger fee.
So what's sneaky about that?
Well, apparently, if a human does a rewrite on an AI script, it automatically makes it protected by the same copyright laws as an original screenplay.
That's a pretty big loophole! It also reveals the much more likely scenario when it comes to AI. It's not about replacing, but more interested in making us work on things already written.
Imagine being in a writers' room where you get handed 15 scripts and have to rewrite the season instead of breaking it even if it's a drivel!
Or what about being brought into a franchise and handed three features you have to tweak and rebreak?
The worst part of this is that the AMPTP companies could prioritize this stuff over ever buying a spec screenplay or an original idea ever again. Why would they pay us for our ideas when they could just feed a computer them and then ask us to rewrite them - and hey, they were offering us a raise there...
But in return, we would be allowing them to copyright their own IP instead of buying our own original IP.
Thankfully, when this deal came across the table, the WGA said it, “failed to sufficiently protect writers.” And they are right!
Negotiations inside Hollywood will continue around these subjects. I have maintained since the start that the AMPTP should be much more agreeable to protecting writers from AI because their jobs will be next to be replaced.
But so far, they've yet to see the forest for the trees.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
