A Wuhan court just made AI production costs a legal factor in copyright infringement cases

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.

A Wuhan court just made AI production costs a legal factor in copyright infringement cases 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 . The 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. The 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. It awarded the plaintiff 20,000 RMB about $2,900 and recommended that creators keep records such as scripts, prompt drafts, and project files. AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe 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. Subscribe now National Law Review https://natlawreview.com/article/wuhan-court-considers-ai-token-costs-calculating-damages-copyright-infringement-ai