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Micro-Course • legal

Human Authorship: Your Copyright's Best Friend

The Thaler Standard & How to Protect Your AI-Assisted Film

12 minutes total
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Thaler v. Perlmutter: What It Means for You

3 min read

The Case That Changed Everything

In March 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in *Thaler v. Perlmutter*, cementing the most important AI copyright ruling to date:

"Human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright."

The Story

Dr. Stephen Thaler tried to register copyright for an AI-generated image, listing his AI system as the sole author. Every level of the federal court system rejected the application.

What The Courts Said

  • The D.C. Circuit conducted a thorough analysis and concluded that copyright law presupposes a human creator
  • The "work-made-for-hire" doctrine doesn't apply — it requires a human-created work in the first place
  • Copyright's purpose is to incentivize human creativity — machines can't respond to that incentive

    • What This Means for Filmmakers

    If You...Then...
    Use AI as a tool under your creative directionYour human contributions are copyrightable ✅
    Generate AI content and substantially modify itThe modified portions are likely copyrightable ✅
    Use raw AI output with minimal changesThose elements may NOT be copyrightable ⚠️
    Use entirely AI-generated content as-isThat content is public domain — anyone can copy it ❌

    The Good News

    Thaler doesn't say you *can't* use AI. It says you need to be the creative force behind the work. Your documentation proves that.

    Key Insight: The question isn't whether AI was used — it's whether a human author exercised creative control over the final work.

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