Important Update on AI and Copyright Guidelines

The U.S. Copyright Office has released a new report clarifying copyright protections for AI-generated works. The report establishes that AI outputs alone cannot receive copyright protection, but it preserves rights for human creators who use AI as a tool in their work.

Key Takeaways from the Report

The 52-page report reaffirms that copyright protection requires meaningful human authorship and creativity, not just AI generation. Even with extensive prompt engineering, simply providing text prompts to AI systems does not qualify for copyright protection.

However, works that combine human-created content with AI-generated elements may be copyrighted, but only for the human-authored portions.

Key Findings

1. No new legislation is needed. Existing copyright laws sufficiently address AI-related copyrightability issues.
2. AI is an assistive tool. AI-generated content can be incorporated into a copyrighted work if there is clear human authorship.
3. Human authorship is required. Purely AI-generated material is not copyrightable unless there is substantial human control over its creative elements.
4. There will be a case-by-case evaluation. The level of human involvement must be assessed individually.
5. Prompts alone are insufficient. Simply entering a prompt into an AI system does not make the user an author.
6. Modification and arrangement matter. Human authorship may exist if a user edits, selects, or creatively arranges AI-generated content.

Potential Impact on Teachers and Schools

This guidance provides much-needed clarity for those working with AI tools. Previous guidelines suggested any AI usage would prevent copyright claims. However, this update recognizes that human contributions—when significant and demonstrable—can still be protected.

Impact on Garnet Valley and other school districts

There are two key reminders related to this report that directly affect most districts:

• Intellectual Property Policies. Garnet Valley has three policies (219.1, 319.1, and 419.1) that make it clear that employees cannot personally profit from materials developed using district resources or facilities. Specifically, our policies state:

“Employees are prohibited from charging or obtaining anything of value for personal gain or otherwise, from other agencies or individuals, for any materials or products that are developed through the use of District resources or facilities…”

• Our Open Educational Resources (OER) Commitment. Garnet Valley is an OER school district and follows the Creative Commons license CC, BY, NC, SA.

This license allows others to:

• BY (Attribution): Credit must be given to the original creator.
• NC (Noncommercial): Content may only be used for noncommercial purposes.
• SA (Share-Alike): Any adaptations must be shared under the same license terms.

What does This Means for most school employees?

Simply put, school employees cannot usually write curriculum using district resources and then sell it for personal profit—doing so would violate both our School Board Policies and our Creative Commons license.

I’m guessing most schools have similar policies.

If you have any questions about how this affects your work, please don’t hesitate to reach out.