Based on intellectual property law, only human-generated content produces royalties and is eligible for protection. An AI tool can be recognized neither as a creator, nor even as a co-creator, of a work protected by royalties.
Therefore, content such as music or song lyrics that is 100% AI-generated, without any human creative contribution, is not protected.
Conversely , when a creator uses AI as an assistive tool, combined with his sufficient creative contribution and the originality of his idea to create a music composition, then this is considered as a music work protected by royalties.
The assistive role of an AI tool in the creation of a musical work derives precisely from the existence of such human creative contribution and originality.
The replacement, for example, of some words in lyrics, the change of only a few notes in a melody or the transposition of the same melody to another key (transporto), has been legally ruled that they do not usually constitute a creative contribution. Also, a simple prompt or a series of prompts to the AI tool, without any further processing or shaping of the generated output by the AI user, is not sufficient for a creative contribution to exist and produce royalties.
The creator ought to know, in fact, that there is no guarantee that an AI service will not produce the same or similar melody or lyrics as those of other creators who have selected similar prompts.
In contrast, the more the creator intervenes, modifies and creatively processes the initial output of the AI assistive tools, the more likely it becomes to ensure the level of uniqueness and originality of the musical work. This allows the creator to register the work with AUTODIA and secure the royalties as its author.