[dwringer]

I think when it comes to art, less than one-to-one clones are often still functionally equivalent in the mind of many viewers. Stylistic and thematic content is often just as, if not more, important than the exact composition. But currently the law does agree that this is not copyrightable. And sometimes independent artists profit and make a name for themselves copping other styles, and I think that's great.

But could it be considered an intellectual and sociological denial-of-service attack when it's scaled to the point where a machine can crank out dozens of derivative works per minute? I'm not sure this is a situation at all comparable to human artists making derivative works. Those involve long periods of concentration, focus, and reflection by a conscious human agent to pull off, thus in some sense furthering to the intellectual development of humanity and fostering a deeper appreciation for the source work. The machine does none of that; it's sort of just a photocopier one step removed in hyperspace, copying some of the artists' abstractions instead of their brush strokes.