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THE LEGAL ARTIST
Company blog · thelegalartist.com/blogculturebusiness
THE LEGAL ARTIST is the company blog at thelegalartist.com, writing about culture and business. Since 2022, 6 different Hacker News readers have linked it 6 times, most often “You can't copyright art style (2016)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-04-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog as a source on whether artistic style and AI-generated imitation of artists' work are protected by copyright. Comments cite its post on why style cannot be copyrighted.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A law firm devoted to making every filmmaker, creative professional, and artist into a legal artist.
Most-linked posts?
- You can't copyright art style (2016)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-10-17
What Hacker News says?
- nl · 2022-10-17
> n those cases, it seems like not such a leap to say that the AI has obviously seen that artist’s work and that the output is a derivative work. "Copying" a style is not a derivative work: > Why isn't style protected by copyright? Well for one thing, there's some case law telling us it isn't. In Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures, the court stated that style is merely one ingredient of expression and for there to be in…
Comment linking /blog/you-cant-copyright-style
on “GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code” Submitted Bill Watterson’s refusal to license Calvin and Hobbes (2016) as a story · 464 points
HN discussionAgreed a process cannot be copyrighted. Unfortunately, neither can a 'style', and to my knowledge the amount of 'work' that went into a piece doesn't necessarily effect copyright to my knowledge. I could setup a camera facing outside my window and press the button (with my finger to keep things simpler) every 10 seconds or so for several hours. No framing, thought of subject matter, lighting, just press the button,…
Comment linking /blog/you-cant-copyright-style
on “Getty Images is suing the creators of AI art tool Stable Diffusion”Submitted Consider Negotiating with Infringers as a story · 71 points
HN discussionGenerally no, styles are not copyrightable, but as with all things in the world of IP, it's fuzzy. Here's the first thing I found on a web search: https://www.thelegalartist.com/blog/you-cant-copyright-style
Comment linking /blog/you-cant-copyright-style
on “Judge Dismisses Copyright Claims Against AI Image Generators”Submitted You can't copyright art style (2016) as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
