AI-generated short dramas are becoming increasingly popular online. As more and more people are using AI to create short dramas and the revenue prize increases, an important legal issue has come up: can AI short drama be protected under copyright law, and if someone copied this short drama, what can the creator do to protect their copyright?

By Oliver Walsh, Head of Evidence Services, Rouse In the autumn of 2025, a new actress began doing the rounds. She had a name, Tilly Norwood, a headshot, a showreel and, before long, talent agencies reportedly taking an interest. She had never drawn breath. Tilly was generated entirely by software, and when the actors' union SAG-AFTRA responded, its objection doubled as a definition of the problem. She was, it said, "a character generated by a computer program that was traine

By Oliver Walsh, Head of Evidence Services, Rouse Someone stole the musician. For more than a century, copyright law has focused on protecting creative works. A song, a film, a photograph, a book. Digital piracy simply changed the method of copying. CDs became MP3s. DVDs became torrents. Streaming platforms replaced peer-to-peer networks. The infringement evolved, but the underlying act remained the same. Someone copied the work. Artificial intelligence changes something far

Shanghai's copyright landscape saw key developments over the last year, as the city’s Copyright Bureau unveiled its annual list of 10 high-impact copyright cases in July 2025.