Fiverr CEO weighs in on ruling, affirming the decision and its importance to freelancers on its platform
As reported by Reuters on April 21, 2023, DC District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell’s ruled on the prior Friday that AI-generated work devoid of human intervention cannot be granted copyright protection. The ruling affirmed the Copyright Office’s denial of an application filed by computer scientist Stephen Thaler on behalf of his DABUS system.
In 2018 Thaler applied for a copyright for “A Recent Entrance to Paradise,” a piece of visual art that was created by Thaler’s AI system without any human input.
The Reuter reporting goes on to explain that this ruling follows Thaler’s previous unsuccessful application for U.S. patents covering inventions that were created by DABUS (Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience).
Also, not accepted by the Copyright Office was another artist’s previous bid for copyrights on images generated through the AI system Midjourney—arguing that the system was part of their creative process. Again, reported by Reuters in “Insight: Humans vs. machines: the fight to copyright AI art” on April 1, 2023.
Thaler’s attorneys have indicated that they will be appealing Justice Howell’s ruling.
Other cases involving Generative AI are pending and the intellectual property landscape is still emerging, prompting those impacted to publicly weigh in.
Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr International Ltd. Issued a statement today on Justice Howell’s ruling, stating, “We support this ruling. This is what we’ve been saying all along,” Kaufman said. “We at Fiverr know that while AI can be a powerful tool in the creative process, it’s the human element that imbues work with originality.”
Fiverr’s platform brings together freelancers from around the world, touting that “every project commissioned on Fiverr involves direct interaction and input from human creators”.
“If you are hiring a freelancer on Fiverr, you are getting authentic copyrightable services because you’re always dealing with humans,” says Kaufman.
