Last Updated: 25/04/2026
Introduction
This policy clarifies the copyright position concerning content generated on the Author Approved platform through the use of our integrated artificial intelligence tools (“AI Tools”). The interaction between copyright and AI is a rapidly evolving area of law. This policy reflects our current understanding of UK law, including the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) and recent governmental and judicial interventions, and will be updated as the legal landscape develops.
1. Definitions and Legal Context
Under current UK copyright law, where a literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work is “computer-generated”—meaning it is created in circumstances where there is no human author—the author is taken to be “the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken” (Section 9(3) of the CDPA). For works generated wholly by AI without qualifying human creative input, the UK Government has indicated a policy direction toward removing full copyright protection, confirming that only AI-assisted works where a human author exercises sufficient independent creative skill and labour will remain protectable. This area remains subject to ongoing legislative development and has not been definitively tested in the UK courts.
2. User-Owned Content: Your Creative Input
Where you use our AI Tools as an assistive instrument—for example, by providing substantial, original creative prompts, selecting, editing, and arranging the generated output in a way that involves your own intellectual creation—you retain all ownership and copyright of the resulting “AI-Assisted Content,” subject to the following:
– Ownership: You own the content you create through this human-led, AI-assisted process.
– Your Warranty: By using the AI Tools, you represent and warrant that your use of the AI Tools, including all prompts you provide and the resulting content you subsequently publish or distribute, does not infringe the rights of any third party.
3. AI-Generated Content Without Sufficient Human Input
Where the AI Tool generates content with minimal or no creative human input—such that the resulting work would be considered a “computer-generated work” under current law—the following applies:
– No Grant of Copyright: We do not grant you a claim to copyright ownership of raw AI outputs that lack your independent creative contribution. Furthermore, Author Approved cannot guarantee that such content is capable of copyright protection against the world at large, in line with the UK Government’s stated intention to potentially remove copyright protection for wholly computer-generated works.
– Commercial Use: You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, perpetual licence to use the raw AI-generated output for both personal and internal commercial purposes (such as incorporating it into a draft manuscript), but you do not own the copyright in that raw output. You may not assert a copyright claim against us or any other user for our or their use of substantially similar material produced by the AI Tools.
– Similarity of Outputs: You acknowledge that AI tools can produce similar results for different users. A similar or identical output generated for another user in response to a different prompt does not constitute infringement of any right you may have.
4. Platform Ownership and Licences
– Platform IP: We retain ownership of the AI Tools themselves, their underlying algorithms, the training data and weights of our models, and any content that we produce independently (such as platform text and marketing materials).
– Licence to Us: By using the AI Tools, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free licence to use prompts and outputs in anonymised and aggregated form to improve, develop, and train our services and AI models.
5. Third-Party Claims and Indemnity
The legal status of AI-generated works is uncertain and rapidly evolving. We make no representation or warranty that AI-generated content is eligible for copyright protection or does not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Marketing Approved from and against any damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from a third-party claim that your use of AI Tools or the resulting content infringes their intellectual property rights. We strongly recommend that you conduct your own diligence and seek independent legal advice before commercially publishing or licensing any material produced in whole or in part by AI.