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Arts & Communication Copyright protection for AI-generated works

carry them, such as fabric for painting, paper for printing, 5. Conclusion
or sound waves and electromagnetic waves for radio
and television. Humans choose the tools to express their AI has made significant strides in the technological
creative ideas, whereas AI users or operators select the development process. To this day, AI continues to evolve,
“tools” for the machine to express the work. contributing to the advancement of various sectors of
society, including the creative industry. The increasing
Third, the process of creation itself differs. Based on the production of high-quality AI-generated works, with
chosen materials and tools, the creator – whether human potential for exploitation, makes the issue of protecting
or AI – imprints their personal touch on the work, which these works even more important. However, granting
expresses their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. While the copyright protection to AI-generated works presents
general sources of material and the tools for expression a long and challenging journey. It requires substantial
can be considered “free materials” that are not subjected changes to current intellectual property law, not only to
to copyright protection, the particular arrangement or support the copyright protection of works created by AI
combination of materials used by the creator is subjected but also to anticipate and adapt to ongoing technological
to copyright protection. For example, in a painting, the advancements. This shift will also compel society to
unique combination of lines, colors, and compositions reconsider its understanding of creativity, acknowledging
is what makes it original. In human-created works, the that creativity is no longer solely a human attribute.
creator expresses their thoughts, concepts, and emotions
through their chosen medium. For AI-generated works, This paper has outlined the reasons for opting
the computers replace the human creators by learning for copyright protection over patent protection for
from input data, selecting and processing information, and AI-generated works. A comparison of the current legal
making decisions about the creation of the works. Although frameworks in international treaties to which Vietnam is
the creative processes differ, both human and AI-generated a member state, along with those in foreign jurisdictions
works can result in original and creative outputs. The such as the United States and the United Kingdom,
primary distinction lies in whether the product is the result highlights the different approaches to copyright protection
of human or AI involvement. for AI-generated works and provides a clearer perspective
on the matter when compared to Vietnamese law.
4.2. Recognizing AI as a copyright holder
The paper has also proposed recommendations for
In the current context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, both international and Vietnamese lawmakers to consider
with the increasing prevalence of “intelligent autonomous as a foundation for recognizing copyright protection for
robots,” the question has arisen as to whether robots works created by AI.
should be recognized as subjects of legal relations. In
Regarding general proposals, given that international
2017, Saudi Arabia became the first country in the world law currently only recognizes copyright for works created
to grant citizenship to a humanoid robot with AI. This
20
development suggests that, if the Fourth Industrial by humans, which must involve a “creative work process,”
Revolution leads to significant legal reforms – including we suggest an alternative approach. This approach would
involve including AI-generated works as a subject matter
the granting of “electronic person” legal status to intelligent
robots – Copyright Law, in addition to empowering for copyright protection, based on evidence of similarities
“natural” persons, will also need to consider attributing in the “creative work process” between human-created
copyright to AI when it creates works. The rationale behind works and those created by AI, thereby recognizing their
this proposal is to make an exception for works created by creativity. In addition, the paper advocates for granting
programs, even if they are entirely machine-generated. 4 legal status to AI in the form of an “electronic person,”
drawing on Saudi Arabia’s pioneering initiative in 2017.
4.3. Amendment and supplement to Vietnam’s For Vietnam, the paper recommends revising the
intellectual property law provisions on copyright in the 2005 Intellectual Property
For Vietnam, this paper proposes the following Law in two key ways: (i) Refining the definition of a “work”
recommendations to better align its intellectual property by more clearly articulating the “creation” element and
law: (i) clarifying the concept of “work” to better define the addressing the legal stance on the creativity of non-human-
condition of the originality required for protection, and (ii) made works, and (ii) amending the concept of “author” to
introducing the concept of “author” and related provisions reflect the degree of human involvement in the creation of
that focuses on protecting only those works that reflect a the work, thereby clarifying the legislator’s stance on non-
decisive human impact. human authors as discussed earlier.

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 7 doi: 10.36922/ac.3745