Computer generated works and copyright protection
- 2. What are computer generated works • Computer-generated works (CGW) can be defined as those works that are created in total absence or a little human intervention at the time of the creation of the work. • An example being weather forecasts generated by computer. It is in direct communication with weather satellite. Little skill is required beyond turning the computer “on”. • Operator cannot influence the contents or forms of output.
- 9. • There is a continuum between, at one extreme, ‘computer-assisted’ works, and at the other extreme, autonomously-generated works. • The centre of the continuum is broad and includes methods of production with varying degrees of human intervention affecting the form. • Depending on the degree of human intervention, the form of the output may be minimally, significantly, or substantially determined by software.
- 11. 1.Works Generated By Computer • Here, the software determines the particular form of the output. • while the programmer sets the rules and parameters in which the software operates, the actual form of the output is unpredictable. • Eg; automated production of lists of numbers such as sudoku puzzles or crosswords. • The capture of raw data by computers located in satellites, and the automated processing of the data to produce images showing the contours of the Earth, weather formations, the movements of planets or the structure of galaxies.
- 12. • Any art practice where the artist uses a system, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other procedural invention, which is set into motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a completed work of art. • Examples include David Cope’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence software, which writes new musical works in the style of famous composers.
- 13. • It is doubtful whether such autonomously- generated outputs are authored works because the computer user is not ‘directing or fashioning the material form of the work. • Except in the broadest sense of producing a desired output such as ‘music’, ‘art’ or ‘literature’, or even a list of random numbers. • The user is responsible for the existence of the output and its general form, but not its particular form, and is really comparable to a human ‘on’ switch for random acts of creation.
- 14. 2. Works Generated using A Computer. • Computer-assisted works will generally be authored works. since software is used merely as a tool to produce the work. • These works are not computer generated, it is the person who uses the computer to create the work. He is recognized at the author. • Eg; Document written using a word processor.
- 15. 3. Intermediate works • The midway point on the continuum between computer-assisted output and computer- generated output is particularly problematic, essentially because both the software and humans make significant contributions to the particular form of the output. • Eg; software may modify a simple melody by introducing harmonies, bass and rhythms or roughly translate a novel into another language.
- 16. • At times, the degree of human involvement is so attenuated that these works may well be classified as wholly computer-generated works. • These examples are not ‘computer-assisted’ works because the software is not a mere tool, but significantly fashions the material form of the output. Nor are they generative works because the entire output is not unpredictable.
- 17. • In case of novel translation, is broadly predictable. Different possible words may be used in a translation, resulting in the particular translation being impossible to foresee. • The overall structure and meaning of the translation will remain similar to the source work, due to the user directing a translated output of certain words. • Is there an author of the modified output? • If software is applied to a work not authored by the user, where is the original intellectual effort of the user if the final shape of the work is effected by software?
- 18. • It is at the same time a compilation, an arrangement of the source work and the software-modified elements. • The question is whether the source author has invested sufficient intellectual effort to be regarded as an author? • When considering the quantity of finished form, authorship will be impossible if ‘much of the contribution’ is due to the software, or if the output is ‘essentially computer-generated’ ‘almost entirely automated’ or ‘overwhelmingly the work’ of the software.
- 19. • On a qualitative assessment, the relevant questions are whether the source author was ‘controlling the nature of the material form produced by’ the software, and whether the software was the ‘transformative step’, ‘obviously fundamental’.
- 20. Concept Of Authorship A. Authorship & Originality • The term “author” is the person who brings a work into existence in its maternal form. • Author in CGW is the person by whom the arrangements necessary for creation of work are undertaken. • The author is most importantly the source of originality, a cornerstone of copyright subsistence.
- 21. • The two expressions ‘author’ and ‘original work’ have always been correlative; the one connotes the other. • The Act itself by its own words requires the double condition ‘author’ and ‘original work.’ The scheme of protection is this: All literary works are protected if ‘original.’ That is the only condition … The word ‘original’ connotes the ‘authorship’.
- 22. • Two elements are required — origination of something and an absence of copying. In this respect, software-generated output is authored. It has originated in the sense of being brought into existence, and no pre-existing expression is copied in the application of software. 1. Degree Of Mental Effort • Originality requires neither novelty nor mental ingenuity and the same copyright protection is given to both a simple song and a great opera.
- 23. 2. Direction Of Mental Effort • The author’s intellectual effort must be ‘directed to the particular form of expression. 3. The Source of Mental Effort: Does the Author Need to Personally Engage in Mental Effort? • It is clear that an author need not supply both the mental and fixation effort. • An author can rely on another person or machine to supply the fixation effort, provided the author’s mind directs and shapes the output.
- 24. Conclusion 1.There must be authorship, in the sense of materialising the work. 2. The author must personally engage in a minimum degree of intellectual effort. 3. That effort must be directed to the particular expression of the material output. 4. That effort must be independent in the sense that the work must originate from the author and not be copied.