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4 Comm/Ent L.S. 707 (1981-1982)
Can a Computer be an Author - Copyright Aspects of Artificial Intelligence

handle is hein.journals/hascom4 and id is 721 raw text is: Can a Computer be an Author? Copyright Aspects of Artificial Intelligence By TIMOTHY L. BUTLER* Helene watched John and cogitated: A supper with him? Dis- gusting! A supper would facilitate a dissertation and a disserta- tion or tale was what John carefully wanted to have. With what in mind? Wine, otters, beans? No! Electrons! John simply was a quantum logician; his endless dreams were captivating and interesting; at all events Matthew, Helene, and Wendy were as- sisting him in his infuriated tries to broaden himself. Now le- gions of dreams itched to punch Wendy's consciousness. Yet John whispered, Just a minute! Helene's a maid, I'm a quan- tum logician; can maids know galaxies and even stars or a mul- titude of galactic systems? . .. Can maids realize electrons?1 I Introduction Few people would doubt the significance of the computer in modern United States society, but most would doubt a com- puter authored the above quoted excerpt. Perhaps trivial and somewhat nonsensical, it nonetheless evidences a signifi- cant trend in computer science towards more powerful, crea- tive and autonomous computer programs. In the computer science field of artificial intelligence (AI), these developments in computer programming pose unique problems in copyright protection of computer software. Computer software capable of automatic programming, inductive analysis and knowledge- based problem solving will soon challenge the legal concepts of authorship and originality central to the common law and stat- utory basis of copyright. As the threshold between man and machine narrows, courts will have to determine the legal sta- tus of the apparently creative work product of a machine, which, if produced by a human, would be afforded copyright protection. * Member, Third Year Class; B.A., University of California, Irvine, 1977. A ver- sion of this note has been entered in the Nathan Burkan Memorial Competition. 1. RACTER, Soft Ions, OMNI, April 1981, at 96, 97. 707

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