Can a Blockchain-based Registry Function as a “protection/safeguard Tool” for Artificial Intelligence Generated Artwork?
Abstract
The present paper intends to reflect how artificial intelligence (AI) artworks question the need to dynamise copyright and expose the role of technology both in the creative process and the management of copyright. The purpose is to evidence the intersection between art and technology and evoke, faced with the present legal gap of intellectual property (IP) with regard to AI generated artworks, the chance to implement the use of systems or mechanism lined up with technology to execute, enforce and claim rights as well as for an adequate, active and agile surveillance based on safe, traceable and immutable information. In order to do this, the tensions and frictions between human and artificial creativity within the framework of IP are approached and special characteristics of different cases are analysed. At the same time, the effectiveness of blockchain technologies and their impact on the IP ecosystem are studied and discussed through the whitepapers published by the world’s highest IP organization (WIPO). A highlight in this work is the underlying need of legal certainty about authorship and protection for the ever-changing realities even when there are still some gaps in the law. Finally, a solution to the dilemma and lack of copyright in this subject is not proposed but rather an alternative to contribute in this matter: this is the potential of a blockchain-based registry as an efficient tool for safeguarding “authorship/ownership” of AI generated works of art, in adittion of it’s value for that purpose and it usefulness, sustainability in time, providing transparency in the period of time before and after its legal regulation –if it’s occurs– without being an obstacle but fostering innovation.
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