Artists lose first copyright battle in the fight against AI-generated images::But the fight may not be lost as the court allowed the artists to claim copyright infringement against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DevianArt, on workpieces that the artists had filed a copyright for.
Copyright is implicit upon creation of the work, however, in order to file a copyright lawsuit, a work must be registered within 5 years of its publication.
That is to say, if you draw a picture, you own it. No one can profit off or change or it without your permission. If you find your art on someone else’s website, you can file a DMCA takedown. Most places will respect this if you’ve got any sort of proof. If they don’t respect it, though, and you need to go through legal channels, you can’t actually take them to court for copyright infringement if you haven’t registered your work. Supposedly, this is to stop copyright trolls from filing frivolous lawsuits. In actuality, it’s used to keep poor artists from suing the big corporations that steal their work, because of fucking course it is. Can’t take the company to court for stealing your labor if you didn’t pay your minimum $45 fee per work stolen!