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India Rejects AI as Author While Protecting Human-Created Copyright
An AI system called DABUS created a picture called “A Recent Entrance to Paradise.”
Stephen L. Thaler asked India to list DABUS as the picture’s author.
India’s Copyright Office said the picture could be original enough for copyright protection.
However, it said DABUS cannot legally be an author because it is not a person or a recognized legal organization.
The office said Thaler helped bring the picture into existence by creating and setting up DABUS.
It explained that a computer acting on its own after setup does not automatically become the legal author.
The office said only Parliament can decide whether AI should receive legal authorship.
The decision does not say that every work made with AI is automatically denied copyright protection.
India’s Copyright Office rejected DABUS as the author of “A Recent Entrance to Paradise.”
Registrar Professor Unnat P. Pandit said the work met the originality standard under Section 13.
The office ruled that DABUS is neither a natural person nor a legally recognized entity.
It found that Stephen L. Thaler conceived, configured, trained, and initiated the system that produced the work.
The ruling said Parliament, rather than administrative officials, must decide whether AI can receive legal authorship.
- Who
- The Indian Copyright Office, Registrar Professor Unnat P. Pandit, and US inventor Dr. Stephen L. Thaler were involved; the application named DABUS as the author.
- What
- The office rejected DABUS as the legal author of “A Recent Entrance to Paradise” while finding that the work met the originality requirement.
- Where
- The decision was issued by India’s Copyright Office.
- When
- The application was filed on May 3, 2022, and the ruling was dated August 31, 2026.
- Why
- DABUS is neither a natural person nor a legally recognized entity, while Indian law requires authorship to be connected to a person recognized by law.
AI Autonomy
Human Legal Authorship
Who created the work?
AI Autonomy
Thaler’s representatives argued that DABUS autonomously generated the image through neural-network processes, while Thaler’s role was limited to designing, configuring, and training the system.
Human Legal Authorship
The Copyright Office said Thaler conceived and created DABUS, supplied inputs, configured its operation, and initiated the process, making him the person who caused the work to be created.
Can AI be an author?
AI Autonomy
The application treated DABUS as the author because it performed the immediate computational and image-generation task.
Human Legal Authorship
The office said autonomous execution does not make a system a legal author because DABUS is not a natural person or a legally recognized entity.
Who should change the law?
AI Autonomy
Recognizing AI authorship could address situations in which autonomous systems generate creative works.
Human Legal Authorship
The office said granting AI legal personality or authorship is a policy decision reserved for India’s Parliament, not something the Copyright Office can establish through reinterpretation.
Key facts
- Work
- “A Recent Entrance to Paradise”
- Named author
- DABUS, or Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience
- Applicant
- US inventor Dr. Stephen L. Thaler
- Application date
- May 3, 2022
- Ruling date
- August 31, 2026
- Relevant law
- Sections 13 and 2(d)(vi) of India’s Copyright Act
- Originality finding
- The office found the work exceeded the required “modicum of creative expression.”
Quotes
Indian Copyright Office
The Indian authority that issued the ruling on DABUS authorship and copyright registration.
“The fact that a system operates autonomously after its configuration does not alter the identity of the person responsible for bringing the work into existence. Autonomy in execution is not synonymous with the conception of a work.”
thehansindia.com
“The possibility of granting legal personality or authorship status to an autonomous artificial intelligence is a policy decision strictly reserved for Parliament and cannot be implemented through administrative reinterpretation.”
thehansindia.com
Sources
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