Computer-generated work

A computer-generated work is a work created by a computer program. Humans can program computers to create, and the resulting computer programs can clearly be original and copyrightable; but what about the output of the computer program? The traditional answer has been that a computer cannot be a copyright “author” because computers are not human. Yet, computers are getting better all the time at creating new works. The copyrightability of computer-created works is nonetheless likely to cause factual disputes over which portions of such works are of human origin and hence copyrightable.