Copyright in Works Generated by Computer Programs

Information technology is a branch of knowledge that has significant prospects. Computer technology, artificial intelligence systems and robotics can seriously change the daily life of society. Nowadays, computer programs can generate musical and literary works, create paintings that cannot always be distinguished from the works of great musicians, writers and painters, while the creative contribution of a person to the creation of such objects decreases as technology develops. Artificial intelligence systems that operate autonomously are capable of creating potentially copyrightable objects without any involvement from the developer or user. The status of such objects is not defined in the current legislation. In addition, it is not clear to whom exactly the rights to the results of computer programs should be assigned. In this work, the author examines the legal approaches to the definition of the main terms used in the field of information technology and robotics, analyzes the legal status of objects of machine creativity and the possibility of assigning the rights to such objects to a specific person. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the legislative reform of intellectual property law is necessary in order to consolidate the legal status of objects of machine creativity and the powers of exclusive rights’ owners to such results.