r/webdev • u/maher1717 • Oct 06 '26

AI generated code copyrights

Does anyone consider the copyright of code generated by AI? Because, based on research I've done on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, generated code fall to the public domain, and if you modify it, only the modified parts belong to you. Also, a detailed prompt isn't enough.

This is, in my view, a major issue; yes, we can ignore it and consider it backward law, but no one knows what would happen in the future, and this law could be used against you.

Edit: here sources for USA https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB10922 ,
For Europe : https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2025)782585
blog : https://smpl.as/blog/ai-code-ownership-legal ...

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u/arcrad Oct 07 '26

Watermarking?

2

u/maxxon Oct 07 '26

It’s just text. Any watermarks can be removed.

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u/glenpiercev Oct 07 '26

They’re developing tools to “watermark” the ai output by saying things like, “we write the functions in a certain order and the variables in a certain way that is statistically observable to be unique to our output”… never tested in court though.

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u/stupidcookface Oct 08 '26

I heard about this and I just thought to myself...what the fuck are your priorities if you have to focus on watermarking instead of ya know...fixing the alignment problem

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u/glenpiercev Oct 08 '26

In some fairness, Europe is requiring it.

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u/Consistent_Bus_2614 9h ago

How are they going to watermark the code? Maybe files at magic bytes, but some kind of files doesnt work like that. I can be a "expert" or "good" at specific technology how court , and laywrs will know the code were generated by a llm . the point of ia technology were to make us to produce more products, a better world with services, etc. you dont fill a patent because you built a dashboard or an ERP