Wuhan court grants copyright to AI-assisted short drama, counts token costs in $3k damages

technollama · x · 2026-09-27

On September 23, 2026, the Jiang'an District People's Court in Wuhan heard Hubei's first copyright case involving an AI-assisted short drama, holding that AI-generated content meeting the requirements of a 'work' is copyrightable, consistent with prior Chinese lower-court rulings. The court found sufficient human intellectual investment, saying the work 'depended on the personalized choices and arrangements of the creative staff.' Notably, damages were calculated partly from token consumption costs and tool subscription/licensing fees, totaling about 20k RMB ($3,000 USD) — a rare precedent factoring AI compute costs into IP damages.

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