Hypo: You record a song with your melody, your lyrics, your voice, and your arrangement. You feed that sound recording into an AI system. The AI analyzes everything and synthesizes a new sound recording that copies you perfectly and simply improves the take. Your tune is still there, your voice is still there, your melodic contour is still there, and the arrangement is now hipper. It is clearly derived from your copyrighted recording.
Now someone else copies that AI‑enhanced sound recording.
That is copyright infringement.
Key points
- The AI version still contains your protected melody.
- The AI version still contains your protected lyrics.
- The AI version still contains your protected arrangement.
- The AI version still contains recognizable elements of your performance.
- The AI did not erase your authorship. It refined it.
- Once you add human authorship through selection, editing, arrangement, or direction, the final sound recording is copyrightable.
- Copying that sound recording without permission is infringement, even if AI helped generate parts of it.
- The Copyright Office will require you to disclaim the AI‑generated portions when you register.
- It does not matter that AI contributed, as long as you properly disclaim the AI portions.
- If you fail to disclaim, you risk losing protection for the entire work.
Bottom line: AI can enhance your work, but it cannot erase your rights. If the new sound recording is recognizably derived from your protected recording, copying it is infringement.