Vent: My friend's AI art generator got flagged for copyright, but the training data was public domain.

Last week in Austin, my friend uploaded a series of images to a new AI art tool. The tool flagged one as a potential copyright issue, claiming it matched a known artist's style. The thing is, he only fed it public domain photos from a 1920s archive. So is the AI copying a style, which is legal, or is it reproducing a specific work? I'm on the fence. Has anyone else run into this with generative art models?

3 comments

3 Comments

theagarcia2mo ago

Heard a podcast about this, the legal line between style and actual work is super blurry right now (makes my head hurt).

reese_hill2mo ago

Yeah, it's a mess. From what I've seen, the safest bet is to get a clear contract that says the style guide itself isn't the final work product. You're paying for the execution, not the ideas in a mood board.

xena_williams8h ago

Laughing at myself because I definitely thought a mood board was the "work" the first time I hired a designer. Spent like three weeks going back and forth on font choices before I realized I was paying for her to tell me what I already knew. A clear contract is KEY, otherwise you end up paying for someone's Pinterest folder. My brain hurts just thinking about all the legal gray areas, honestly.