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Who owns your AI images and videos? Here’s what you should know
If you have been playing with AI image or video generators lately, you probably had the same thought I have. Can you actually use this stuff on your website, in ads or all over social media? And once the tool spits it out, who really owns it?
Let me break it down, so you know exactly where you stand.
📌 What the law says
Here’s the part everyone loves. Most big AI tools let you use the images and videos you create for personal and commercial projects. Put them on your site, drop them in a brochure, add them to your newsletter or even run them in your marketing.
No permission forms. No surprise invoices.
But there is one twist. You can use the image, but you don’t own the copyright. It’s not because the AI company owns it. U.S. copyright law only protects work that has actual human authorship. If the AI created the whole thing, it is not copyrightable at all. It goes straight into public domain the second it appears on your screen.
You can use it. Someone else can use it. No one can lock it down. Think of AI-generated art as super handy. Fun to play with. But not something you get exclusive rights to.
One more thing people forget. You can run into trademark issues if the AI generates something that looks too close to a real brand or celebrity. The law has opinions about that, even if the AI doesn’t.
🎨 Claim it as yours, maybe
Now this is where things get good. If you take an AI-generated image and add real creative effort, like your own photography, artwork or meaningful design, you may be able to copyright the final result. The magic word is meaningful.
A quick crop, a filter or a color tweak is not enough. You need to contribute enough of your own creativity for it to legally become your work.
Check those terms before you throw anything sensitive into a prompt. And if you need legal advice, talk to an actual lawyer. I’m def not one.
Pro tip: When I need truly high-quality images, videos or celebrity shots for books, YouTube and ads, I’ve used Dreamstime for years. The library is huge, and the photos were taken by real photographers instead of a robot guessing what a human face should look like. It keeps everything polished and gives me that edge AI images still cannot deliver.
📣 Share this with a friend. Know someone who is cranking out AI images like they’re running a digital art factory? Share this with them before they accidentally build a brand on pictures they can’t even own. It might save them a legal headache or at least stop them from bragging about “their” AI masterpiece. Use the handy icons below.
Tags: robot, social media, video, videos, YouTube
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