Midjourney Copyright: What AI Artists Need to Know

As AI art becomes more and more prevalent with tools like Midjourney, it's important to understand the copyright implications of creating, sharing and selling this type of content. In this video, we explore the basics of copyright law as it applies to AI art, what Midjourney says about the work and offer some tips for protecting your work.

#aiart #midjourney #copyrightfree

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[aisamsonreal]

If you are curious to learn how to create AI Art check out my NEW course Midjourney Mastery

[GordonSeal]

US Copyright clearly states that AI art can NOT be copyrighted, because it lacks the human authorship. The specific law text is as follows:

"Works That Lack Human Authorship

As discussed in Section 306, the Copyright Act protects “original works of authorship.”
17 U.S.C. § 102(a) (emphasis added). To qualify as a work of “authorship” a work must
be created by a human being."

This means no one actually owns the images made by Midjourney or any other AI software and anyone can legally just grab and resell them. It also does not matter what Midjourney says in their Terms of Service, because national law always overrules any individually made terms.

[lordetern]

Also, realize that all AI generated artwork cannot be copyright. All art in order to be copyright must be created by a person. Stephen Thaler has for years been trying to argue in court that AI generated works should be copyrightable. He has yet to succeed. Therefor, as of right now, all AI generated art is considered public domain.

[maelgarnier]

Thanks to make it clear, i think most of ppl using MJ are not aware of this. AI is challenging Copyrighting

[avviano]

Would be interesting to get an update to the copyright question. As far as I understand, based on recent rulings in the US, AI generated images cannot be copyrighted. Which means there are no legal owners to any images created in either MJ or SD. Especially MJ since their servers are in the US and fall under that jurisdiction. In effect, this would imply that anyone can use your a.i. generated images and vise versa, you can use anyone elses images either privately or commercially. I posed this question to member support in MJ and my final message were I stated just that got deleted. They said I need to ask a lawer (fair enough). Anyway, if my assumption is correct, then becoming a MJ member would in effect allow you to use all the images for free also commercially. This would be pretty amazing. I am not even sure if MJ terms of services can change that fact, as copyright law overrides any image usage terms in company ToS, which would merely remain as a sort of code of ethics with no real legal implications. I am not a lawyer, but would love to get some pro advise here.

[bubbsy]

I'm not sure if I understood this part for non-paid members, does this mean you can not use the work you generate to sell since you are not a paid member?

Also say I have a screenshot of my avatar from a 3d chat game where it's completely customized down to the eyelash. would that fall under copyrights if I were to use it as a base for a midjourney piece?

[REDINKmysteries]

Actually as the final output is a derivative work, resembling other copyrighted work is usually not an issue assuming the derivative is "significantly varied and altered from the original copyrighted work".

[assortedbibssundayfootball]

Good video. What are your IPR rights if you are a paid member? DO you have exclusivity over what is created?

[FluxNomad]

Does this apply to uploaded images people using their prompts? Like if I wanted to use mid journey to modify a portrait of myself or either a friend or family member will that somehow become the property of the journey?

[asdasdaasdasd]

Can i use it for marketing (without the paid membership)?

[kingofusa]

The argument that I make with this on all AI generated art platforms is this... so long as I had invested money into the application generating the art and the AI that is assisting me is not conscious nor does it hold a United States citizenship or a Social Security number, the platform or application owner is being paid for the services. Therefore it is impossible for anyone other than the human who typed in the words that generated the art to own the rights to the artwork that is generated..

[meowon]

What if I redraw an image I generated during my free trial, in my own style, do I own the copyright of my drawing? If I sell it will I be sued by Midjourney or is that never going to happen? And are they even going to find out if I never mention I used an AI generated image as reference?

[Mary]

Hi I just signed onto midjourney still in trial mode, I would like to create a child book and start selling my images, but I do not know really how to properly use midjourney or what plan I should subscibe too? I would like to take one of your courses to find out what is best for me. where do I start what is the best course of yours to take to learn what I need?

[pouing]

Hello, when we generate an image, do you know if we can check somewhere that we do not steal the work of an artist because of an image too identical. Thank you

[zcush]

So recently I bought a membership in MJ and started generating images with my own ideas like flowers, animals and nonsense things. I had an idea to open an online store to sell print on demand products, but then I started listening here and beyond the copyright on the images, and I am scared to think I could be breaking some law even knowing that Midjourney gives me commercial rights on the generated images. I am still confused, and I end up closing the stores that I create and delete all the generated images.

[travelwell]

I was trying to get a particular scene and used the exact same sentence over and over again. I received the exact same image twice and wondered if someone else had given the same fairly basic prompt, would the AI give them the same picture it’d also given me. Then there might be issues over ownership.
From what I’ve heard, a new original piece is created each time. But surely the AI has a database of everything it has created and might just start churning out the same pieces to different people.

[TheInnerGame]

hi i have a question. If i create superhero ( DC or Marvel ) characters using midjourney and use those images to sell them online for example like t-shirts, will it be a problem ?

[chaitubhogireddy]

i have basic plan, can i use that image for my book cover ?

[rocklee]

what do you mean copywright free images for prompts? when you add your own images to the AI to work with?

[AlottaBoulchit]

I've never used MJ or any other AI service (only made some meme shit with dalle mini once) so I have no real idea how their services work. 😆

Is everything you create with the AI available/uploaded automatically to a public gallery? If you pay for a subscription do your creations still go up publicly or can the gallery be private?

I've seen a few vids of folks talking about MJ but no one ever explains that clearly. I assume every render is free to access regardless of paying for the service.