Who Owns the Code
for founders, engineering leaders, and counsel shipping AI-generated code<br>Who owns the code?<br>AI code<br>no author<br>no copyright<br>Under current U.S. copyright law, purely AI-generated code has no human author, so it cannot be copyrighted and cannot be defended as an asset you truly own.<br>Take the risk assessment -><br>Read the FAQ
ownership.sh<br>zsh<br>12345678<br>~/startup git:(main) $ whoami --code<br>checking authorship of ./generated ...<br># purely AI output, no human authorship on record<br>author: none<br>copyright: not eligible<br>status: unowned, undefendable<br>~/startup git:(main) $ assess --my-risk
Our guidance applies to code generated from every AI tool
the four things teams miss<br>Four ways AI code puts ownership at risk<br>Ownership is not a formality you fix later. It is decided by who authored the expressive work, line by line.
01own_the_output.ts<br>123<br>doYouOwnTheOutput<br>// verdict: noCode written entirely by an AI tool has no human author, so under U.S. copyright law it cannot be copyrighted, and you cannot own it.
02vibe_coding.ts<br>123<br>vibeCodingRealExposure<br>// the AI did the expressive workWhen you let the AI make the creative decisions, the code is not human-authored, and code that is not human-authored is not a protectable asset.
03mixed_codebase.ts<br>123<br>mixedCodebases<br>// you own only what you authorIn a codebase that mixes human and AI work, you own the parts a person meaningfully wrote. The AI-generated parts stay unprotected until a human reworks them.
04open_source.ts<br>123<br>openSourceIsNotNoCopyright<br>// a license needs an owner to grant itOpen source is not the same as no copyright. A license only holds if someone owns the code, so an open-source license placed on pure AI output has nothing to enforce.
the case law, as a commit history<br>Four anchors already merged into the record<br>These are not predictions. Each is a recent decision or report that hardened the rule: no human author, no protection.
branch: us-copyright-law<br>*|<br>commit b7e1f04<br>Author: Supreme Court of the United States<br>Date: Mar 2026<br>Supreme Court denied cert in Thaler; human-authorship rule stands<br>The Court declined to review the D.C. Circuit's ruling, leaving the human authorship requirement as settled U.S. copyright law unless Congress acts.<br>+ human authorship: settled law<br>- purely AI-generated code: still not eligible
*|<br>commit a1f0b7c<br>Author: Thaler v. Perlmutter<br>Date: Mar 2025<br>Works created entirely by AI are not eligible for copyright<br>The court confirmed that only humans can hold copyright protection; a work generated wholly by a machine has no author the law will recognize.<br>- machine-authored work: protected<br>+ machine-authored work: not eligible
*|<br>commit 6d24e9a<br>Author: Thomson Reuters v. Ross<br>Date: Feb 2025<br>First decision to reject a fair-use defense for AI training<br>The first ruling to reject a fair-use defense for using copyrighted material to train an AI, narrowing a shield many teams assumed they had.<br>- training on copyrighted data: fair use<br>+ training on copyrighted data: defense rejected
commit 0c3ab55<br>Author: U.S. Copyright Office report<br>Date: Jan 2025<br>Only meaningful human creative input is eligible for protection<br>The Office stated that only portions of a work carrying meaningful human creative input are eligible for protection. The AI-generated remainder is not.<br>+ human-authored portions: protected<br>- AI-generated portions: unprotected
next_steps.md<br>run the check before your next release<br>Find out what you actually own<br>A short assessment maps where AI-generated code sits in your stack and where your ownership quietly breaks down.<br>Take the risk assessment -><br>Read the FAQ
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