Copyright - the Word with
Heather René Dunaway
June 2026
In today’s world, creating art in any form can be scary. Not scary “boo” but scary “what if AI steals my art?” With AI tech quickly on the rise, as it learns so too do we. We are seeing in real time what laws need to change in order to protect the intellectual property of artists and creatives.
Back in 2025 the TRAIN act was introduced to congress by U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who is a a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act, is meant to help creators such as musicians, artists, writers, and others, use of the courts to protect their copyrighted works if and when they are used to train generative artificial intelligence (A.I.) models. The TRAIN Act allows copyright holders to access training records used for A.I. models to determine if their work was used. It was modeled after a process that is currently used for internet piracy. Who knew those laws created to keep us angsty teens in the early 2000s from illegally downloading music (and viruses on our family’s desktop computers) would come in handy again?
This new act has yet to be passed and has been sitting with congress for almost a full year, but the discussion around AI is becoming more heated as data centers move into communities.
So what can you, as an artist, do to ensure your work is protected? Well, the first step is copyrighting your work. Which, at a base level, you as creative automatically assume copyright of your completed, tangible work. Documenting your process and work is incredibly important in proving your work is in fact yours. Keep your sketchbooks, your lyric journals, your designs with all the layers saved. If you have to go to court, you will need to file/register your work with the copyright office.
To register your work:
- Visit the U.S. Copyright Office’s Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) portal.
- Select the “Work of the Visual Arts” application.
- If you are the sole creator and owner of a single artwork, or a series published on the same day, you may qualify for the “Single Application.”
- Artists with multiple works may also qualify for discounted group registrations for unpublished works or photographs, helping reduce filing costs.
Registration fees typically range from $35–$55 depending on the application type, and you’ll need to upload a digital copy of your artwork as part of the filing process.
For online, it may be best to only upload watermarked versions of your work, low resolution, or embed your pieces with your information. Photographer Joanie Simon with the Bite Shot has a great video on how to embed images with metadata (your info) on YouTube, if you click here. For your own websites, you can also download plugins that disallow right clicks, so folks can’t just save your images from your own site. All of this makes it harder, but not impossible, to protect your content online. So do what feels comfortable to you. If that means completely removing your online presence, you wouldn’t be the only artist to do so, but know that many clients live online, so connecting with them may be more difficult. A double edged sword indeed.
One thing is for sure, AI can’t replicate what a human does. You put your heart and soul into the work you do, and AI don’t got those. While many believe it will continue to evolve into a useful tool to help save lives in the medical field, or make jobs easier (and in some ways it has), AI in the Arts is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Some see it as a useful tool to help in their creation process, or manage the business side of their art by treating it as a personal assistant. Which I can understand (who likes doing the boring stuff). Others see it as a threat, which I also get. So, don’t come for me.
Today’s arts world is full of uncertainties. The laws are slower to evolve than we like, especially when it comes to AI. Constant diligence can be exhausting. So the work load needs to be shared. Artists need to be aware of the changes that are happening in order to protect themselves or collectively agree to move to a private island we all chip in to buy and live our merry, artful lives in peace.
While we all save up for that, look into protecting your work online and securing your copyright on the legal level.
We got this.
-Heather