Zarya of the Dawn sets the template for mixed human and AI works

In February 2023 the U.S. Copyright Office decided the registration for Kris Kashtanova’s comic book Zarya of the Dawn, made with Midjourney images. The Office allowed registration of the human-written text and the human selection and arrangement of the images, but excluded the individual AI-generated images from protection.

This is the template for mixed human and AI works. Protection attaches to the human-authored layers, not the AI output. For software, the parallel is a mixed codebase: human-written portions and human selection and arrangement may be protectable, while purely generated functions are not.

This page reflects current U.S. copyright law and general international principles. It is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.