Adam Schiff Asks Witness If Film Completely Produced With AI Would Have 'No Protection Whatsoever'

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]your questions. Um, can you tell us the experience of other countries that have used those no fault injunctions? Uh, how they've been successful, how they haven't, anything that you would improve upon in terms of what other countries are doing?

[00:00:14]>> Well, of course, different countries are doing somewhat different things. Uh, and as uh you pointed out earlier, we now have over 40 countries internationally who have no fault injunctions in one form or another. I think what has well first of all I should say uh three years ago we looked at uh the evidence and the studies and found that work done by academics by governments court reviews uh everything indicated and the private sector all indicated that these injunctions could be very successful in curbing infringement if they were applied appropriately and broadly enough. Uh I have not seen anything that questions that. Uh so we are convinced that they are helpful. Um, as to what made them work or not work, I think what was critical is to give the courts some discretion and ability to balance uh uh the interests on all sides in terms of the scope of the injunction and when it was appropriate and also an appropriate definition of what kinds of websites we're talking about. Foreign websites primarily dedicated to infringement. So, it should not sweep up those websites that are just multi-purpose uh sites.

[00:01:22]And is there adequate provision uh in those other models for a situation where a pirate site simply changes its domain, moves from one uh web page to another?

[00:01:34]Um do the court orders have enough fluidity to flexibility to travel the internet and enjoy them wherever they move? Yes, I think those are in in effect the new and updated and improved models for no fault injunctions are those that uh are dynamic and are able to ensure that it's not just one site allowing uh the uh infringer to move from one place to another at will. Um, one thing that I think is fascinating and I think you're trying to strike the right balance here is to what degree do the copyright laws protect the output of AI.

[00:02:11]>> Um, and requiring a substantial human component, not enough just to ask prompts but but more engagement than that. Um does that mean is the consequence of that that if a studio for example were or an individual were to produce an entire let's say animated film where the story was written by AI all the graphics the action the um the different uh animation technologies are all driven by AI that and put that film out in theaters that it would have no protection whatsoever.

[00:02:49]I think it's unlikely in that circumstance that there would not be human contributions that might qualify as authorship. It's just a question of uh what they would cover within the film. So the components that were entirely generated by AI would not be protected by copyright. But what we've tried to uh elucidate is that if you have a human that selects, coordinates and arranges uh the outcome, the output that that can be sufficiently creative uh to to qualify.

[00:03:20]>> But it it is and I would imagine that if it's a studio, they'll make sure they have enough human input whether it's needed or not to qualify. But um but does that mean though that if I used AI to write a movie, produce the movie, develop the animation that and I put it out that others could put it out at will because it would have no protection.

[00:03:43]>> Probably those portions of it that did not involve the human contribution could be copied from a copyright perspective.

[00:03:49]There might be other bodies of law, contract law, trademark law that might also come into play.

[00:03:55]Um, how's the copyrighted claims board working and uh and what can we do to make it even more effective and efficient and accessible for people?

[00:04:06]>> I have to say I I in many ways think of the copyright claims board as being uh a miracle that it came into being so quickly and so smoothly. Uh it's been working very well. uh the decisions its final determinations have been hailed as being reasonable and appropriate uh and thoughtful. Uh we have a panel of really fantastic uh officials on the board uh three of them uh copyright claims officers. Um, and what I find particularly uh persuasive is not only that they've issued excellent decisions uh and within and with very appropriate and reasonable amounts of damages, but they've also uh facilitated a lot of settlements, both those we know about and those that we don't necessarily get reported to us. They've also incentivized licensing and private negotiations. And perhaps the most important, they've uh I would say greatly enhanced respect for copyright because the existence of a forum where rights where claims can be litigated practically as a practical matter uh means that copyright rights are meaningful in a way they weren't necessarily before. Having said that, we did identify a number of ways in which the system could be improved to make it faster and less complicated. and uh we would be delighted to work with you to uh look at legislative language to take that forward.