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Hm; maybe you are right in that I am conflating 'copyright' and 'the ability to commercialize'. So to follow up, I'm under the impression that the copyright of a character enables companies to create and sell licenses to third parties to use the likeness of the character under terms limited by the license, and that any commercial usage outside of that paradigm is a copyright violation. EG. it's 1998 and the Pokemon Company licenses MadCatz (defunct) to create Pokemon themed N64 controllers. Such a license is limited to N64 controllers; let's say under the terms of the license, MadCatz can't turn around and make a Pokemon themed bag in the style of ugh, Rat Fink. MadCatz can't make N64 controllers, and the Pokemon Company knows this, and really doesn't want them botching up their brand with horrific art, too. Copyright protects brand. Now legally speaking, I can put a depiction of pikachu on a powerpoint slide in a school report and call it 'fair use'. But the second I sell that art on a bag (regardless of whether I put the words Pokemon on it), I've violated copyright laws, because the purchaser of my bag has deprived our poor Pokemon company of potential income. Womp-womp. Dumb as it is for Nintendo to come after me (as they go after the makers of Pokemon rom hacks, et al), it makes some sense, depending on how I scale up. Fast forward to 2026 and now we have GPT-8 (flip it sideways for infinity, as we have reached the Singularity by this time). Pokemon is old as the hills and is celebrating its 30th anniversary (Jesus!). I use an AI with the prompt "fat yellow thunder mouse", and it generates a "pikachu but better", uncannily like the iconic character (because it's the only yellow thunder mouse anyone ever draws) but cute in all the ways that our AI knows how to get to humans, and I decide to coin it in an NFT and put it up for sale. Let's say the Pokemon Company is particularly litigious in its old age and is a veritable Disney. Or hell, let's suppose Disney bought the Pokemon Company (and now Misty is a Disney princess, just like Leia). Given that: I own the NFT (in the sense of your software library example), no-one owns the art (AI-generated), Pokemon owns the brand and the concept of a Pikachu, and this particular depiction is recognized to be pikachu "but kinda better", we live in one of these worlds: 1. Disney is owed money from the proceeds, and can request cease of production / legal remedy
2. It is not owed anything, as the art itself was generated from an AI. Which makes more sense? |