Japan is taking legal action for the first time regarding an image created by artificial intelligence. Police have determined the image is protected by copyright law.
Police in Chiba Prefecture have sent a 27-year-old man from Kanagawa Prefecture to prosecutors, alleging he used an AI-generated image created by someone else as the cover for a book he sold, without getting the original artist’s permission.
Investigators, as reported by the Yomiuri Shimbun, found that the artist gave the AI model more than twenty thousand specific directions before the image was completed.
Police state that the final image is considered a legally protected creative work in Japan due to the significant human effort and care put into it.
Police to indict man for allegedly copying AI-generated image
Japan’s cultural agency has stated that AI-created content can be copyrighted, depending on how detailed the instructions are and how much a person guides the AI’s work. Now, for the first time, police are using that idea in a case involving an image created by AI.
According to AI copyright expert Kensaku Fukui, detailed and precise instructions given to an AI can lead to outputs that demonstrate human creativity. He believes the important factor is whether the person using the AI had a specific idea of what they wanted the AI to create.
This situation is happening while Japan is also discussing how to control AI-generated images. This includes considering limits on AI-created anime artwork and facing resistance from big gaming and anime businesses regarding OpenAI’s Sora 2 video technology.
This case could set a precedent for how Japan’s legal system addresses disagreements about art created using artificial intelligence.
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2025-11-21 17:49