{"slug": "a-wuhan-court-just-made-ai-production-costs-a-legal-factor-in-copyright-cases", "title": "A Wuhan court just made AI production costs a legal factor in copyright infringement cases", "summary": "A Wuhan court included AI token usage and AI tool licensing fees in a copyright damages calculation for the first time, awarding 20,000 RMB (about $2,900) to a company whose AI-generated one-hour short drama was copied and re-titled by another firm, the National Law Review reported. The court classified the drama as a protectable audiovisual work because employees made creative decisions at every stage — script, prompt design, selection of AI outputs and final editing — and also weighed runtime, distribution reach and infringement duration. The court recommended creators keep records such as scripts, prompt drafts and project files.", "body_md": "# A Wuhan court just made AI production costs a legal factor in copyright infringement cases\n\n**Token usage and AI tool licensing fees have been included in a copyright damages calculation for the first time.** A court in Wuhan, China made the ruling in a dispute over an AI-generated short drama, [the National Law Review reports](https://natlawreview.com/article/wuhan-court-considers-ai-token-costs-calculating-damages-copyright-infringement-ai).\n\nThe decision extends China's growing copyright protections for AI-created works. Back in 2023, a Beijing court already [granted copyright protection](https://the-decoder.com/beijing-internet-court-grants-copyright-to-ai-generated-image/) to an AI-generated image. In this case, a company used AI tools in early 2026 to produce a one-hour short drama and published it on platforms like WeChat. One day later, another company copied the work, gave it a new title, and ran ads in it.\n\nThe court classified the drama as a protectable audiovisual work because employees had made [their own creative decisions](https://the-decoder.com/even-most-intricate-prompts-wont-earn-you-copyright-on-ai-content-us-officials-warn/) at every stage, from the script to prompt design, selection of AI outputs, and final editing. The AI was just a tool. Beyond AI-specific costs, the court also weighed traditional factors like runtime, distribution reach, and how long the infringement lasted.\n\nIt awarded the plaintiff 20,000 RMB (about $2,900) and recommended that creators keep records such as scripts, prompt drafts, and project files.\n\n```\nAI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans\n\n\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive \"AI Radar\" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe now\n```\n\n[National Law Review](https://natlawreview.com/article/wuhan-court-considers-ai-token-costs-calculating-damages-copyright-infringement-ai)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-wuhan-court-just-made-ai-production-costs-a-legal-factor-in-copyright-cases", "canonical_source": "https://the-decoder.com/a-wuhan-court-just-made-ai-production-costs-a-legal-factor-in-copyright-infringement-cases/", "published_at": "2026-09-28 10:39:52+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-28 10:47:32.567658+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "generative-ai", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Wuhan court", "National Law Review", "WeChat", "Beijing Internet Court"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-wuhan-court-just-made-ai-production-costs-a-legal-factor-in-copyright-cases", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-wuhan-court-just-made-ai-production-costs-a-legal-factor-in-copyright-cases.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-wuhan-court-just-made-ai-production-costs-a-legal-factor-in-copyright-cases.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-wuhan-court-just-made-ai-production-costs-a-legal-factor-in-copyright-cases.jsonld"}}