Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Determining the Copyright Holder for AI-Generated Content: Human Creator, AI System, or Platform?

Jiangchuan AiThe Education University of Hong Kong*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

AIGC has become popular which brought legal issues concerning the ownership of copyrights. This paper will examine the question of who deserves to be a copyright user; human users or AI systems, or development platforms. The main problem of AIGC is that its output does not contain the independence of intent and creativity but rather violates the copyright laws. To this, other countries react differently: the United States follows the rule of human author, the European Union is experimenting with new frameworks, whereas China is likely to introduce AI as a secondary instrument. This paper believes that humans should be given copyrights since they are the individuals who assume the decisive and dominant role in the entire creative process. Essentially, AI systems are hardware and software devices, which cannot be a product of their own and do not personally qualify as the subject of the law. The platform position must be one of the managers who will go through the contents, prevent and control any risks. To encourage the creative process of advancing the laws to fit the technological progress, this paper offers to suggest that legislation ought to explicitly lay out the preeminent role of human creators, and augment the compliance obligation of platform makers. Simultaneously, it must maintain some level of flexibility and open up to the prospect of acknowledging some rights of the developers or platforms under given conditions so as to balance the rights and interests of pinnacle creators and technological advancement.

Keywords: AIGC; copyright ownership; human creators; platform responsibility
Published: October 28, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.HT28640
Volume: CHR Vol.93
pp. 7-12
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