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by nyanpasu64 1437 days ago
I don't think the provider of an AI image generator service can decide they own the copyrights to it (perhaps they can require you assign the copyrights, though it may not even be copyrightable?), only courts can (and they decided the person setting up cameras for monkeys didn't own the copyrights to the monkey photos)?
2 comments

Courts only decided the monkey couldn't copyright the photo (the PETA case).

The copyright office claimed works created by a non-human aren't copyrightable at all when they refused Slater, but that was never challenged or decided in court. It's not a slam dunk, since the human had to do something to set up the situation and he did it specifically to maximize the chance of the camera recording a monkey selfie.

If I set up a rube goldberg machine to snap the photo when the wind blows hard enough, how far removed from the final step do I have to get before it's not me owning the result anymore? That's the essence of the case, had it gone to court, probably the essence here too.

My guess is the creativity needed for the prompt would make the output at least a jointly derived work regardless of any assignment disclaimers--pretty sure you can't casually transfer copyright ownership outside a work for hire agreement, only grant licenses--but IANAL and that's just a guess.

DALL-E needs human input to start generating, the monkey pressed the shutter all on its own.