AI, Style & Copyright: An Empirical Study

This study explores public perceptions on imitations of artistic style performed by humans and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). The extent to which artistic style imitation is and should be prohibited by copyright law is heavily debated in various jurisdictions. While copyright law distinguishes between ideas, which are not protected by copyright, and expression, which is protected by copyright, artistic style is sometimes seen as part of the idea, and other times as part of the expression, which consequently affects the scope of copyright protection and potential infringement. The rise of sophisticated AI models with which all kinds of artistic styles can be mimicked on a large scale with very little effort amplifies this debate. Many people instinctively object to GenAI systems that create works closely resembling an artist's style, fearing it could undermine human creativity and replace artists. Through an online vignette study, we investigate how people perceive human style imitations vs. GenAI style imitations. We analyze which conditions promote or diminish (non-)acceptance, such as the effort involved in creating the imitation, the original artist's popularity, the purpose of the style imitation, and the similarity between the imitation to the original work affect people’s attitudes. Furthermore, we explore people’s reasoning for (non-)acceptance and map them to the different theoretical foundations of copyright law. Our research has important implications for understanding how GenAI potentially shapes societal norms around style appropriation, creativity, and the future of copyright law.