On March 7, 2025, the Changshu People’s Court announced that it had ruled that images generated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) are eligible for copyright protection.  This is believed to be the second case regarding AI-generated images with the Beijing Internet Court ruled similarly in late 2023.   In the instant case, Lin XX generated an image of a half heart in a city waterfront using Midjourney and further used Photoshop to edit the image. An unnamed Changsha real estate company then used the image in a WeChat posting and further built a three-dimensional installation based on the image at one of its developments.

The Court explained that it first reviewed the user agreement of the AI software involved in the case, and clarified that the assets and rights of the pictures produced by using the software service in the Midjourney software user agreement belong to the user, and logged into the creation platform in court to review the login process, user information, and the picture iteration process such as the modification of the prompts. The court held that Lin’s modification of the prompts and the modification of the picture through the image processing software reflected his unique selection and arrangement, and the image generated by this was original and belonged to the works protected by the Copyright Law. The two defendants violated the copyright by disseminating the picture on the Internet without the permission of the copyright owner. At the same time, it was determined that the copyright enjoyed by Lin should be limited to the picture, and the manufacturing of the three-dimensional installation was only based on the image. The real estate company’s design and construction of the corresponding installation did not constitute an infringement of Lin’s copyright. The court then ruled: 1. The infringing party publicly apologized to the plaintiff Lin on its Xiaohongshu [Red Note] account for three consecutive days; 2. The infringing party compensated the plaintiff Lin for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 10,000 RMB; 3. The plaintiff Lin’s other claims were rejected. After the first-instance judgment, neither the plaintiff nor the defendant appealed, and the judgment has taken legal effect.

This is the opposite of the decision reached by the U.S. Copyright Office in Zarya of the Dawn (Registration # VAu001480196) that did not recognize copyright in AI-generated images.

The original announcement can be found here (Chinese only).