The aim of this thesis is to examine whether paintings, music or texts produced by Artificial Intelli- gence (AI output) are protected under Swiss copyright law de lege lata and whether these should be protected de lege ferenda. Firstly, the basics of AI generated output are examined and classified under Swiss copyright law. Secondly, the classification is analyzed on a comparative legal basis. Thirdly, different lines of argument for and against the protection of AI output are discussed and different im- plementation options are considered. The result of these analyses shows that AI output de lege lata does not enjoy copyright protection in Switzerland because AI output does not have sufficient human input and therefore the definition of a work is not met. There are various arguments for and against the copyright protection of AI output, as well as ways in which a protection could be implemented. For Switzerland de lege ferenda there is a good argument for granting copyright protection to AI output based on incentives and practicability arguments, even if this is associated with a paradigm shift away from the human centricity of Swiss copyright law. Furthermore, it is argued here that the best solution is to assign the copyright to the user of the AI.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
LS - Business Enterprise - Law, Innovation and Risk
