The likeness of Indiana Jones is not protected in any way - as far as I know - that would stop a human artist creating, rendering and selling a work of art representing their creative vision of Indiana Jones. And even more so in a private context. Even if the likeness is protected (“archaeologist, adventurer, whip, hat”) then this protection would only be in certain jurisdictions and that protection is more akin to a design right where the likeness would need to be articulated AND registered. Many jurisdictions don’t require copyright registration and do not offer that sort of technical likeness registration.

If they traced a photo they might be violating the copyright of the photographer.

But if they are drawing an archaeologist adventurer with a whip and a hat based on their consumption and memory of Indiana Jones imagery there is very little anyone could do.

If that image was then printed on an industrial scale or printed onto t-shirt there is a (albeit somewhat theoretical) chance that in some jurisdictions sale of those products may be able to be restricted based on rights to the likeness. But that would be a stretch.

> Or, you mean if the artist doesn't have a license to produce and distribute Indiana Jones images? Well they'll be in trouble legally. They are making "copies" of things they don't own and profiting from it.

Ok, my sister can draw, and she gifts me an image of my favorite Marvel hero she painted to hang on my wall. Should that be illegal?

That’s not how copyright law works.

Commissioned work is owned by the commissioner unless otherwise agreed upon by contract.

So long as the work is not distributed, exhibited, performed, etc, as in the example of keeping the artwork on their refrigerator in their home, then no infringement has taken place.

Totally agree. LLM's are just automating that infringement process.

If you make money off it, it's no longer fair use; it's infringement. Even if you don't make money off it, it's not automatically fair use.

My own favorite crazy story about copyright violations:

Metallica sued Green Jello for parodying Enter Sandman (including a lyric where it says "It's not Metallica"):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Harley_House_(of_Love...

They lost that case. The kicker? Metallica were guest vocalists on that album.

This doesn't make any sense to me. No media is getting copied, unless the drawing is exactly the same as an existing drawing. Shouldn't "copy"right apply to specific, tangible artistic works? I guess I don't understand how the fantasy of "IP" works.

What if the drawing is of Indiana Jones but he's carrying a bow and arrow instead of a whip? Is it infringement?

What if it's a really bad drawing of Indiana Jones, so bad that you can't really tell that it's the character? Is that infringement?

What if the drawing is of Indiana Jones, but in the style of abstract expressionism, so doesn't even contain a human shape? Is it infringement?

What if it's a good drawing that looks very much like Indiana Jones, but it's not! The person's name is actually Iowa Jim. Is that infringement?

What if it's just an image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip, but otherwise doesn't look anything like Indiana Jones? Is it infringement?

You're right, it's not just about reproduction, it's about how the data was collected

Plus the scale of it all.

A human friend can get tired and there's so many request he/she can fulfill and at a max rate. Even a team of human artists have a relatively low limit.

But Gen AI has very high limits and speeds, and it never gets tired. It seems unfair to me.

If you're paying for tokens used to generate that...

I believe when we talk about this there's a big misunderstanding between Copyright, Trademarks, and Fair use.

Indy, with its logo, whiplash, and hat, is a trademark from Disney. I don't know the specific stuff; but if you sell a t-shirt with Indiana Jones, or you put the logo there... you might be sued due to trademark violation.

If you make copies of anything developed, sold, or licensed by Disney (movies, comics, books, etc) you'll have a copyright violation.

The issue we have with AI and LLM is that: - The models compress information and can make a lot of copies of it very cheaply. - Artist wages are quite low. Higher that what you'd pay OpenAI, but not enough to make a living even unless you're hired by a big company (like Marvel or DC) and they give you regular work ($100-120 for a cover, $50-80/page interior work. One page needs about one day to draw.) - AI used a lot of images from the internet to train models. Most of them were pirated. - And, of course, it is replacing low-paying jobs for artist.

Also, do not forget it might make verbatim copies of copyrighted art if the model just memorized the picture / text.

I would argue that countless games have already been made by top tier professional artists that IP-Steal the Ghibli theme.

Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom should be included there.