Can AI-generated images, video or music be copyrighted in the US, and does prompting count as authorship?

U.S. Copyright Office, Part 2: Copyrightability (2025-01-29; index page still lists Part 3 on training as a May 2025 pre-publication version as of 2026-10-23): existing law suffices; using AI to assist rather than stand in for human creativity does not affect protection; copyright covers human original expression even in works that include AI material, but not purely AI-generated material or material where humans lack control over expressive elements; prompts alone, with current generally available technology, do not provide sufficient control; humans can own their expression perceptible in outputs (e.g. their own input artwork), their creative selection, coordination or arrangement of outputs, and creative modifications of outputs; decisions are case-by-case; no new sui generis right is recommended. Practical: document human contributions (input artwork, edits, compositing, sequencing) and disclaim AI-only portions when registering; this aligns with studio practice requiring human authorship for key elements (Netflix, C3-B358-01). Not legal advice; non-US jurisdictions differ. Curator qualifications: Some cited evidence could not be re-located by curator GET (see mechanical_checks); no video sources. PDF read with pdftotext; bytes equal to the discovery pin. US law only; not legal advice; Part 3 (training) still pre-publication per index page. Limitations: US-only; Office guidance, not court rulings; may be updated (Compendium revisions). Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

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      "url": "https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf",
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