In the style of: exploring industry, creator and legal implications of copying style through generative AI
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper addresses the role of copyright in governing how generative AI replicates artistic style. Style is considered to be somewhat intangible and unfixed and is not typically protected by copyright law. Yet, a key affordance of generative AI the ability to create works ‘in the style of’ other works. The legal, creator and industry implications of copying style through generative AI have not yet been the focus of critical analysis or platform governance research. Instead, legal and scholarly attention has tended to focus on the implications of coping works to train generative AI models and rights over their outputs. As of mid-2024, there are several high-profile legal disputes worldwide regarding the uses of generative AI in the cultural industries. Over the past two decades, the music industries have figured prominently in legal disputes that impacted how copyright functions in the digital era. In this paper, using a media industries studies approach, we analyze how the music industries’ history of driving copyright expansion may shape the future of generative AI governance across the cultural industries. We offer provocations to encourage dialogs between creators, industry, and critical researchers that historicize debates about copyright and technology, expose the limitations of past approaches to govern copyright on digital platforms, and point to specific institutional dynamics in the music and cultural industries that will influence the development of AI governance regimes.
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4409963449