ORIGINALITY, AUTHORSHIP, AND GENERATIVE AI: RETHINKING INDONESIAN COPYRIGHT LAW

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI) has fundamentally transformed the landscape of creative production by enabling the rapid generation of texts, images, music, and other expressive works. This development poses significant challenges to the traditional foundations of Indonesian copyright law, particularly under Law Number 28 of 2014 concerning Copyright, which is grounded in an anthropocentric understanding of authorship and originality. This research examines how Indonesian copyright doctrine addresses the originality of AI-generated works, the legal status of their creators, and the broader implications of such works for the intellectual property system and the creative economy. Using doctrinal legal research, the study applies statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches. It analyzes relevant provisions of Indonesian copyright law, explores core concepts such as independent creation, the minimum modicum of creativity, derivative works, and public domain status, and compares regulatory developments in the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The study finds that AI-generated outputs, in their raw and autonomous form, generally fail to satisfy the originality requirement because they do not sufficiently reflect human intellectual choice and creative judgment. In the Indonesian legal context, AI cannot be recognized as a legal subject or author, since copyright law grants moral and economic rights exclusively to human creators. This research argues that copyright protection should remain grounded in meaningful human creative contribution. Accordingly, outputs generated entirely by AI without substantial human modification should be placed in the public domain, while protection may only attach to human-authored post-production elements or highly creative, iterative forms of prompting. The study also emphasizes the urgency of adaptive regulation through disclosure obligations, AIGC labeling, and digital watermarking to ensure legal certainty and transparency. Ultimately, maintaining the human-centered philosophy of copyright while accommodating technological innovation offers the most coherent framework for protecting creativity and sustaining the Indonesian creative economy in the age of Generative AI.