Copyright & AI

The author is the creator of the work (Section 7 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)). Authorship is tied to a natural person. If several people are involved in the work, they are joint authors of the work (Section 8 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)). A mere idea does not meet the threshold of intellectual creativity, as it has not yet been embodied. Under current law, entering prompts is not sufficient to create a copyright-protected work, regardless of whether these prompts are simple, extensive, or complex.

AI cannot be an author, as it is not a natural person and does not engage in intellectual activity.

If a work is created by both AI and a human, the extent of human contribution is decisive. If an AI-generated text is rewritten or an AI-generated image is modified, the person may become the author of the new work. The modifications do not have to be extensive, but minor, insignificant edits are not sufficient (rewriting words, changing colors).

For the use of third-party works (i.e., works of which I am not the author) in an AI tool, sections 44b and 60d of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), which relate to text and data mining (TDM), are relevant.

Section 44b, which addresses the general TDM exception, determines both scientific and commercial use. According to paragraph 3, the permission is only legally valid if the rights holders have not reserved their use by documenting any restrictions on use in a machine-readable format.

Under Section 60d, TDM is permitted for scientific purposes. Section 60d does not apply to commercial purposes. When invoking s 60d, no reservation of rights is permitted.

Additional legally permitted uses for educational and scientific purposes are set forth in sections 60a through 60f or in the private copying exception (s 53(1) UrhG).

These works are either in the public domain, unpublished, published under an open-access license, or accessible through a licensing agreement.

This has not yet been definitively clarified in court. The provisions in the German Copyright Act (UrhG) regarding text and data mining suggest that it is permitted. Several lawsuits regarding such practices are currently still outstanding. The expected final judgements will make it easier to assess the situation in the future.

According to s 44b of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), an opt-out clause can be established. Such an opt-out may also be specified through licenses or in the terms of use (settings in the application) of AI companies, depending on the circumstances.

This is not currently regulated. There are various proposals for future compensation, for example from copyright collecting agencies.

A copyright infringement in AI-generated content is relatively unlikely. If it does occur, however, it can lead to cease-and-desist letters, injunctions, and claims for damages—for both teaching staff and their employing institutions (2019 court ruling, in German only).

Licensed e-books must not be uploaded to AI tools, as their content is protected by copyright. This use will have to be specified in future license agreements.

Information on this can be found in the guidelines of the respective department. If in doubt, you should check with your supervisor.

• Follow the relevant guidelines for academic work issued by your department to properly cite the use of AI-assisted tools, for example, the guidelines for academic work (in German only) published by the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Chemnitz University of Technology.
• Recommendations for safeguarding good research practice when using artificial intelligence by the Leibniz Association
• Guidelines for identifying AI-generated texts and images (in German only)
• Guidelines on citing AI from the University of Basel (in German only)
• Depending on the citation style, the citation varies. Many citation guidelines now include rules on how to handle AI-generated content. The latest editions (Chicago Manual of Style), blog posts from organisations (APA, MLA) and libraries (IEEE), and the reference guide Cite Them Right : The Essential Referencing Guide provide detailed guidance.

In addition to copyright law, you must also take into account personality rights, data protection law, and ethical considerations.

Works that are licensed under a free license for reuse may be used for purposes permitted by law.

Even the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC does not exclude such use. If the author grants a reservation of use (see s 44b(3) of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)), the terms of the CC license agreement apply (see Information regarding Creative Commons licenses).

Yes, that is possible. These are legally accessible works.

No, but there are initiatives underway at Creative Commons (CC Signals), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Really Simple Licensing to establish fair rules for different types of access and to ensure that creators receive a share of the profits generated by such use.

Yes, this is permitted. If authorship of an AI-generated text can be claimed, it may be licensed as an OER under a Creative Commons license. However, it must be ensured that the AI-generated text does not contain any copyrighted content.

Yes, it is permitted, since OER are published under a Creative Commons license and are therefore legally accessible works under TDM. It is not permitted, however, if the authors of the original works have formulated a reservation of use in accordance with s 44b(3) of the German Copyright Act (UrhG).

As long as no copyrighted work is being created, the content may be used entirely on OPAL. The following applies to these publications:

• If the work used is in the public domain: There are no restrictions to publishing. AI-generated text created without significant human input is considered to be in the public domain (Salden 2023).
• If the work used is licensed under a free license, the license notice and a note indicating that the work has been modified must be included.
• If all rights of the work used are reserved, the result may not be shared without permission (Rack 2023). However, according to s 60c of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), 15% of the work may be used in OPAL.

• to assist in the development of teaching materials
• as a tool for translating teaching materials
• as a tool for generating assignment questions

Uploading student work to an AI detector without consent to check whether it was written using AI raises copyright issues. (Salden 2023) Academic work is protected by copyright. This data must not be entered into AI software if it is to be reused as training data or used for any other purpose. The evaluation itself must be conducted entirely by the examiner and not by software. AI systems may be excluded as aids in examination regulations or restricted to specific applications. (Bischof 2025, DFG 2026)

It can be assumed that these materials are protected by copyright. In that case, their use is permitted only within the framework of the legal regulations. If the third-party works have been published under an open-access license, they may be used. Works that are not subject to copyright may be used as well as derivative text formats in accordance with s 23(1), sentence 2, of the German Copyright Act (UrhG). Further provisions can be found in sections 60a, 60c, and 53(1) of the German Copyright Act (UrhG). (see UrhG)

If the adaptation shows a significant degree of creativity, this is possible. In that case, copyright protection applies to the texts, but not to the images created.

It is unlikely that the output contains protected content, but this cannot be completely ruled out. This should be verified. Original creations such as caricatures, parodies, or pastiches (remixes, mash-ups) may be permissible under s 51a of the German Copyright Act (UrhG).

Bischof, A. (2025) ChatGPT & generative KI: Handreichung für den Umgang in Lehre und Studium an der Fakultät für Human- und Sozialwissenschaften. Available at: https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/hsw/soziologie/Professuren/Techniksoziologie/Lehre/HSW_Handreichung_Taskforce_ChatGPT.pdf (Accessed: 11 June 2026).

Brehm, E. (2022) Guidelines zum Text und Data Mining für Forschungszwecke in Deutschland. Available at: https://doi.org/10.34657/9388 (Accessed: 23 June 2026).

Brehm, E. (2024) Open Access und Künstliche Intelligenz. Was ist erlaubt und was nicht?, Vortragsfolien. Available at: https://open-access.network/fileadmin/ipoa/Veranstaltungen/oa-talk/oatalk_20240926_brehm.pdf (Accessed: 11 June 2026).

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Creative Commons (2024) Six Insights on Preference Signals for AI Training, Blogbeitrag. Available at: https://creativecommons.org/2024/08/23/six-insights-on-preference-signals-for-ai-training/ (Accessed: 11 June 2026).

Creative Commons (2025) Using CC-licensed Works for AI Training. Available at: https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Using-CC-licensed-Works-for-AI-Training.pdf (Accessed: 27 May 2025).

DFG (2026) Künstliche Intelligenz. Available at: https://www.dfg.de/de/grundlagen-themen/digitale-themen/ki (Accessed: 11 June 2026).

iRights.Lab (2026) Outputs. Available at: https://irights-lab.de/outputs (Accessed: 23 June 2026).

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McAdoo, T. (2025) How to cite ChatGPT, Blogbeitrag. Available at: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt (Accessed: 23 June 2026).

MLA Style Center (2025) How do I cite generative AI in MLA style? (Updated and Revised) Available at: https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai-updated-revised/ (Accessed: 23 June 2026).

Nanyang Technological University Library (2025) LibGuides: Citation Styles: How to cite Gen AI content in IEEE Style. Available at: https://libguides.ntu.edu.sg/c.php?g=935202&p=7006284 (Accessed: 27 May 2025).

OER FAQ (no date) Was ist die Public Domain Mark? Available at: https://oer-faq.de/faq/was-ist-die-public-domain-mark/ (Accessed: 27 May 2025).

Präsidium der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (2023) Stellungnahme des Präsidiums der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) zum Einfluss generativer Modelle für die Text- und Bilderstellung auf die Wissenschaften und das Förderhandeln der DFG. Available at: https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/apps/ki/230921_Stellungnahme_Praesidium_DFG_ki_ai.pdf (Accessed: 11 June 2026).

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University of Chicago Press (ed.) (2024) The Chicago manual of style: the essential guide for writers, editors, and publishers, 18th edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Available at: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed18/frontmatter/toc.html (Accessed: 23 June 2026).