ABSTRACT
This article addresses the evolving legal challenges posed by AI-assisted creative works, with a focus on copyright authorship in visual art generated by text-to-image tools such as Midjourney. Osborn argues that traditional copyright doctrine centers on the mental conception of an author – not the physical skill used to express it – and introduces the concept of ‘conception-informed fixation’ to evaluate the copyrightability of AI-assisted outputs. Through a comparative analysis of legal approaches in the US, Europe, and China, the article critiques the US Copyright Office’s restrictive stance on AI-generated content and offers a revised framework that distinguishes between ‘sweat of the brain’, ‘sweat of the brow’, and ‘skill of the brush’. Osborn concludes that users of AI tools can meet the threshold of copyright protection if they exercise meaningful creative control, and he calls for consistent application of existing copyright standards to AI-assisted works, rather than the creation of AI-specific exclusions.
Osborn, Lucas, Copyright, Creativity, and Skill: Authorship and AI-Assisted Works (April 30, 2025), Belmont University College of Law Research Paper No 2025-10.
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