U.S. Copyright Office Guidance to The MLC on AI-Created Works

rights policy item·mechanical royalty guidance·active

Advises that works lacking sufficient human authorship are ineligible for section 115 royalties and that suspicious claims may be investigated with royalties held in suspense.

Verified facts

Official site	https://www.copyright.gov/ai/USCO-Guidance-Letter-to-The-MLC-Letter-on-AI-Created-Works.pdf ↗
Geography	United States
identifier	Guidance letter dated April 20, 2023
parties	U.S. Copyright Office; The Mechanical Licensing Collective
item type	mechanical_royalty_guidance
confidence	high
identifier	Guidance letter dated April 20, 2023
filing date	unknown
jurisdiction	United States
adoption date	2023-04-20
affected works	AI-generated and AI-assisted musical works
current status	in_force_guidance
effective date	2023-04-20
affected models	unknown
canonical title	U.S. Copyright Office Guidance to The MLC on AI-Created Works
confidence basis	Primary document reviewed; status language is conservative.
enforcement date	unknown
affected datasets	unknown
issuing authority	U.S. Copyright Office
primary documents	https://www.copyright.gov/ai/USCO-Guidance-Letter-to-The-MLC-Letter-on-AI-Created-Works.pdf
unresolved questions	The evidentiary threshold and operational consistency of MLC investigations into claimed human authorship.
affected entity types	songwriters; publishers; copyright owners; mechanical licensing collective
affected organizations	U.S. Copyright Office; The Mechanical Licensing Collective