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Can you copyright AI art, music and video?

Last checked 2026-10-17 · Not legal advice

Usually not, if AI made it on its own. In the US, copyright needs a human author, and the Copyright Office says prompts alone don't give you enough control over the result. The parts a person creates can be protected: your own lyrics, your edits, or the way you select and arrange AI material.

This page summarises official sources as checked on 17 October 2026. It isn't legal advice, and the law is still changing. For a specific work, ask a lawyer where you live.

A tool's terms are a contract between you and the company. They decide who owns whatever rights the company has in an output, and whether you may use it commercially. Our tool pages track those terms plan by plan.

Copyright is set by law. It decides whether anyone holds exclusive rights in the output at all. Suno, for example, assigns Pro and Premier users its rights in their songs, but its terms also say it "makes no representation or warranty to you that any copyright will vest in any Output".

So a tool's terms can let you sell an AI image or song while copyright law gives you nothing to stop someone else copying it.

United States

What the Copyright Office says

On 29 January 2025 the US Copyright Office published Part 2 of its report on copyright and artificial intelligence, which covers copyrightability. Among its conclusions:

  • "Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements."
  • "Based on the functioning of current generally available technology, prompts do not alone provide sufficient control."
  • "The use of AI tools to assist rather than stand in for human creativity does not affect the availability of copyright protection for the output."
  • "Human authors are entitled to copyright in their works of authorship that are perceptible in AI-generated outputs, as well as the creative selection, coordination, or arrangement of material in the outputs, or creative modifications of the outputs."

How much human contribution is enough gets decided case by case.

The Thaler ruling

Stephen Thaler applied to register an image that he said his AI system, the Creativity Machine, had made on its own. On 18 March 2025 the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the refusal. It held that "the Copyright Act of 1976 requires all eligible work to be authored in the first instance by a human being", and added that this rule "does not prohibit copyrighting work that was made by or with the assistance of artificial intelligence". The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on 2 March 2026.

A comic book example

In February 2023 the Office reviewed Zarya of the Dawn, a comic book illustrated with Midjourney images. It found that the author's text and her "selection, coordination, and arrangement of the Work's written and visual elements" were protected, but that the Midjourney images "are not the product of human authorship". It replaced the registration with one covering only the material she created.

Registering a work that contains AI material

The Office's registration guidance of 16 March 2023 says applicants "have a duty to disclose the inclusion of AI-generated content in a work submitted for registration" and must briefly explain what the human author contributed. In practice:

  • Claim only the parts a person made, in the "Author Created" field.
  • Exclude AI-generated content that is more than de minimis, under "Limitation of the Claim".
  • Don't list the AI tool or the company behind it as an author or co-author.
  • If you're unsure, say in general terms that the work contains AI-generated material. The Office will contact you when it reviews the claim.

What this means for art, music and video

This is our reading of the US sources above, applied to the kinds of work our readers sell.

Art and images

An image generated from a prompt alone is unlikely to be protected. What you add can be, for example your own drawing used as an input, or a layout that combines the images with your own text.

Music

An AI-generated melody, vocal or backing track isn't protected on its own. Lyrics you wrote and parts you played or sang can be, and so can creative edits to the AI material.

Video

A clip generated from a prompt is in the same position as an image. Your own script and footage can be protected, and so can the way you select and edit clips into a finished video.

United Kingdom

UK law already has a rule for computer-generated works. Section 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says that for a computer-generated literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, "the author shall be taken to be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken".

The government's Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (18 March 2026) proposes "that this specific type of protection should be removed, while copyright should continue to protect works created with AI assistance". It's only a proposal so far. As of 17 October 2026, section 9(3) is still in force.

The same report notes that sound recordings and films are protected whether or not a person was creative, and says that protection "will also apply to a recording of music, film, etc. generated by an AI system".

European Union

In December 2024 the Council of the EU's Presidency summarised member states' answers to a questionnaire on AI and copyright. It reported "a clear understanding" that "only a natural person should be considered as an author and therefore purely AI-generated works cannot be protected by copyright", and a general view that works may be protected "only if the human input in their creative process was significant". Member states agreed there was no need for new protection for AI-generated content. It reports what member states said and doesn't change the law.

Japan and China

In May 2024 Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs published an overview of its General Understanding on AI and Copyright, which isn't legally binding. It says copyrightability is decided case by case, that "lengthy instructions (i.e., prompts) that merely suggest an idea do not influence the assessment of creative contribution", and that creative additions or corrections a person makes to AI output are generally protected.

In 2023 the Beijing Internet Court ruled on an image made with Stable Diffusion. Because the plaintiff had set up the model, written the prompts and chosen the final picture, the court found he was "the author of the picture involved and owns the copyright on it". This was a single court decision about a single image.

Quick answers

Can you copyright AI art?

Not an image generated from a prompt alone, according to the US Copyright Office. You can protect what you add: your own artwork used as an input, creative edits, or the way you select and arrange AI images with other material.

Can you copyright AI music?

Not music that AI generated on its own. In the US, lyrics you wrote and parts you performed can be protected. In the UK, the government's 2026 report says sound recording protection also applies to recordings generated by AI.

Can you copyright an AI-generated video?

The same rules apply. A clip made from a prompt alone isn't protected in the US, but what you add yourself, such as the script or the edit, can be.

What could make AI-generated content ineligible for copyright?

A lack of human authorship. The US Copyright Office says copyright doesn't cover purely AI-generated material, or material where a person didn't control the expressive elements. With current technology, it says, prompts alone don't give that control.

If a tool says I own the output, do I have the copyright?

Not necessarily. A tool's terms are a contract: they can give you whatever rights the company has, and permission to sell. Whether a copyright exists at all is a question of law.

Do you have to disclose AI when you register a copyright in the US?

Yes. The Copyright Office says applicants must disclose AI-generated content, describe what the human author contributed, and exclude AI-generated content that is more than de minimis.

Sources

For what each tool's terms say about ownership and selling, see the tool pages. Spot an error? Report it.

Get the changes

Every two weeks, when AI rules or terms change. If nothing changed, there's no issue. We may add more over time.