China’s First Copyright Dispute Over an AI-Generated Short Drama Clarifies the Legal Boundaries of Creation and Use

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?

Recently, the Huangpu District People's Court of Guangzhou City issued a first-instance judgment. This was the first criminal case that involving the infringement of AI-generated short dramas in China. The Court stated that users who use AI create short dramas could be protected by copyright law if the short drama is original.

In this case, the AI short dramas are from an online video game. This video game company operates an AI tool. When creators want to make an AI-generated short drama, they only need to input prompts such as original script, plot settings and camera requirements. After that, the system can then quickly generate the short drama. These AI generated short dramas had already developed into a series on short video platforms and attracted a large number of viewers. According to the company, hundreds of users had created these works via the system, producing more than 7,000 short dramas in total.

In 2024, the company found that some people were selling short dramas in public without authorization. They used short video platform programs or screen recording software to copy and reproduce these short dramas, then store and sell them on multiple online platforms by sharing links after receiving payment. The company considered that the unauthorized recording and sale of the short dramas which are from their system had infringed its lawful rights, and they reported to the police. Following an investigation, the police identified two suspects.

In this case, the most important thing is to determine if the AI short dramas in this case could be regarded as works in the legal sense. The procuratorate and the investigators collected different evidence relating to the creation process of short dramas, including the users’ original scripts, the records of creative discussion, operation logs from the system, and records of camera settings information, etc.

The evidence showed that the short dramas were not generated by a simple process. Instead, the users used original scripts to set the theme, characters, plot and style of the short dramas. During this process, they contributed their own ideas and original expressions. As a result, the works could be protected by copyright law.

According to the investigation, two suspects had used screen recording software to make unauthorized recordings of more than 1,700 AI-generated short dramas. It was found that under the Criminal Law and the relevant judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People’s Court, a person may commit the crime of copyright infringement if, for profit, they distribute more than 500 works without permission. In this case, since 1,700 works are already exceeding the standard (500 works), the procuratorate brought a public prosecution against the two suspects.

Based on the evidence, the judge explained that the AI-generated short dramas should be recognized as works protected under copyright law. The two defendants, without the permission of the rightsholders, made unauthorized recordings of the AI short dramas and shared them on multiple platforms for profit. Therefore, this behavior constituted a criminal infringement.

This criminal case involving AI-generated works not only protected the legal rights and interests of the company and the creators but also made a clear boundary for copyright protection of AI-generated content. If AI-generated content includes people’s original intellectual input, then the work can be protected by copyright law.

Overall, copyright law should protect works that meet the standard, while also giving proper protection to technological innovation.

Therefore, for companies, this means they need to carry out careful checks and proper management in advance to make sure that the training data is lawful. For creators, AI should only be used as a tool to assist creation. It is important for users to understand the limits of lawful use.

Creating content with AI does not mean that we automatically own all rights in it, and sharing such content for profits may still take legal responsibility. People should not assume that AI-generated content can be used freely and assume that the use of AI could remove our liability. If a person uses AI to create content that is substantially similar to another person’s work, and then use it for commercial purposes, it may still give rise to civil liability, even criminal liability.

Author: Jenny Tian (Rouse Guangzhou); with James Godefroy, Principal, Rouse .

Sources: https://www.gipc.gov.cn/front/showArticle?id=2942

Image credit: <a href="https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos/woman">Woman Stock photos by Vecteezy</a>