Russian court denies copyright protection for AI-prompted images
A Moscow court has ruled that two images created using AI are not eligible for copyright protection.
The court denied copyright protection to two AI-generated images, “Mona Lisa with Wine” and “Statue of Liberty with Wine”, finding that entering prompts for a neural network is a technical process rather than creative work, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Independent outlet The Insider noted that RIA did not name the court, the case number, or the date of the ruling, making it impossible to independently verify the decision or confirm whether it has taken effect.
The plaintiff reportedly said he purchased the original images and then reworked them using an AI programme, replacing the torch in the Statue of Liberty’s hand with a wine glass, and altering the position of the Mona Lisa’s hand, her facial expression, and her hairstyle. He sued after the resulting images were used on T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and thermal cups sold without his authorisation.
The court held that an AI programme has no consciousness and cannot itself exert creative effort. It described entering and refining prompts as "simple mechanical actions" that do not produce an independent object of copyright. The court also noted that the ideas the plaintiff had used were not novel, having appeared repeatedly in art and media before.
Russia’s court system has an ambivalent relationship with AI. The Insider notes that past court decisions have upheld copyright protection for works in which the technology played only an editing role but that were primarily human-made.
In April 2026, the Supreme Court reportedly used AI to help draft a plenary resolution. Last week, Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin proposed treating the use of AI as an aggravating circumstance when sentencing convicts.
