LogInJason Allen's "creative input is on par with that expressed by other types of artists."
Jason Allen's Théâtre D'opéra Spatial painting was perhaps the first loud case of generative AI art being used in a traditional contest and even more – winning it.
In 2022, Allen won the Colorado State Fair's fine art competition in the digital art category with an image generated with Midjourney, which sparked heated discussions about the fairness of this move.
Back then, Allen said he knew his work "would be controversial," but that didn't stop him from trying to get rights for the image now.
Allen is suing the US Copyright Office for rejecting his copyright protection request for the image in question.
As reported by Reuters, he believes Théâtre D'opéra Spatial was an expression of his creativity, but the Office's decision "put me in a terrible position, with no recourse against others who are blatantly and repeatedly stealing my work."
Allen claims he inputted a text prompt, "rephrased, added, or deleted portions of his instructions," and then "repeated this elaborate process six hundred twenty-four times." However, he reportedly refused to disclaim the parts of the image generated by AI, so the Copyright Office rejected the request.
"Mr. Allen had a specific artistic idea, conceived of in his mind, and he used Midjourney as a tool to create an artistic expression of that idea," the lawsuit said. "Such creative input is on par with that expressed by other types of artists and is capable of copyright protection."
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