Can AI Be a Copyright Infringer? Why AI Cannot Be Considered a Legal Subject

 

1. Introduction: If AI Violates Copyright, Is the AI to Blame?

As generative AI systems become capable of producing:

  • artwork,

  • text,

  • music,

  • synthetic voices,

  • and complex decisions,

many people ask:

  • “If AI creates the infringing work, shouldn’t AI be responsible?”

  • “Why do courts pursue the developer instead of the model?”

Legally, the answer is unequivocal:

**❌ AI cannot be held responsible.

❌ AI is not a legal person.
❌ AI cannot commit infringement.**

The law does not treat AI as an actor—it treats AI as an instrument controlled by humans.

2. What Is a Legal Subject, and Why Doesn’t AI Qualify?

A legal subject is an entity capable of:

✔ holding rights
✔ bearing obligations
✔ being sued or suing
✔ entering contracts
✔ understanding legal consequences
✔ forming intent (mens rea)

Only two types of entities qualify:

  1. Natural persons (humans)

  2. Legal persons (corporations, foundations, associations)

AI does not qualify because it:

❌ has no consciousness

❌ cannot understand law

❌ lacks free will

❌ cannot hold rights or obligations

❌ cannot be punished

❌ has no moral or legal agency

Thus, AI cannot be a legal infringer.

3. Why AI Cannot Commit Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement requires:

  • intentional or negligent actions,

  • understanding of rights,

  • capacity for responsibility,

  • voluntary behavior.

AI has none of these.
It performs:

  • algorithmic operations,

  • statistical inference,

  • and pattern reconstruction.

AI does not “choose” to violate copyright.
The developer chooses the dataset, the training method, and the model’s capabilities.

4. Infringement Happens During Training — Not Output

My thesis highlights a crucial point:

“Copyright infringement occurs during the training process, when copyrighted works are copied by the AI developer without permission.”

This means AI:

  • ❌ did not decide which works to copy

  • ❌ did not scrape the internet

  • ❌ did not choose training sources

  • ❌ did not knowingly reproduce copyrighted content

Training is a developer-driven action, performed by humans or corporations.

Therefore:

**AI cannot be the infringer.

The developer is.**

5. Who Is Actually Responsible When AI Causes Infringement?

1. AI Developers

The primary liable party because they:

  • gather and process training data

  • choose the dataset

  • design model behavior

  • determine safety constraints

  • commercialize the system

2. Companies (Deployers / Providers)

The entity offering AI services for commercial use.

3. Users (in intentional cases only)

If a user knowingly generates infringing content.

❌ Not responsible: The AI

AI has no legal standing.

6. International Legal Consensus: AI Is Not a Legal Person

A. United States

US Copyright Office and federal courts agree:

  • AI cannot own copyright

  • AI cannot commit infringement

  • liability lies with developers and deployers

Cases like Getty Images v. Stability AI repeatedly confirm this.

B. European Union

EU AI Act clearly assigns obligations to:

  • providers (developers)

  • deployers (companies using AI)

AI itself is never considered liable.

C. Japan

Even with permissive AI training laws:

  • AI is not a legal subject

  • developers remain responsible

  • AI cannot commit a legal wrong

D. Indonesia

Under Indonesian civil and criminal law:

  • only humans and legal entities can be sued

  • AI has no legal personhood

  • liability always falls on the controlling human party

7. Why It Would Be Dangerous to Treat AI as the Infringer

If AI were treated as the legal wrongdoer, then:

❌ No one could be held accountable

❌ Creators would lose their rights

❌ Enforcement would become impossible

❌ Developers could avoid liability

❌ Compensation would become meaningless

Who would pay damages?
Who would be punished?
How do you force AI to comply with the law?

It would create a legal vacuum.

Therefore:

The law must hold humans—not AI—responsible.

8. Conclusion

❌ AI cannot be the infringer

❌ AI cannot be a legal subject

❌ AI cannot be accountable for copyright violations

✔ Developers and companies remain fully responsible

✔ Users may share liability in intentional misuse

✔ Global laws consistently treat AI as a tool

✔ Infringement originates from human-controlled training processes

In short:

**When AI breaks the law, the law looks for the humans behind it.

And that is always the developer.**

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