Machine-written content — what you may actually do with it
The copyright question has an uncomfortable answer: in most jurisdictions purely machine-generated text is probably not a protected work. What that means in practice for a company that wants to sell it.
This post is about uncomfortable things. The answer to “who owns the rights to text written by a model” is, in most jurisdictions, probably: nobody. That has consequences worth knowing early rather than late.
A protected work requires a human
Copyright protects works — expressions of creative activity with an individual character. The operative word is activity, meaning human activity. Text generated by a model, without creative input from a person, does not meet that condition.
Authorities elsewhere reach the same conclusion. The United States Copyright Office consistently refuses registration to purely machine-generated works, allowing protection only for the elements a human actually created.
What that means in practice
You can sell it. The absence of copyright protection does not prohibit sale. You are selling a copy and your own work — the choice of subject, the outline, the editing, the typesetting. That is legal and commonplace.
You have no exclusivity. You cannot stop somebody writing a similar book or, in the case of purely machine-produced text, copying yours. If you are building a product whose entire value rests on the text being unrepeatable, that is a real problem.
Your editing is protected. The passages you added, the examples from your own practice, your arrangement of the material — those carry human creative input and are protected on ordinary terms. It is another reason to read the material and add to it, rather than publish it as it came out.
What a supplier licence gives you
If the text is not a protected work, what is the licence for? It governs your relationship with the tool provider, not with the world. It states whether you may use the output commercially, resell it and include it in your own products — and that is a contractual obligation whose breach has consequences regardless of copyright.
In Edulibro the basic licence covers personal use, and the commercial one covers resale, giving away as a lead magnet, and use in courses and client materials. That is an agreement between us and you, not a declaration about rights in the text.
Disclosure: the rules and the practice
There is rarely a general obligation to label machine-produced content. There are, however, three places where it matters anyway:
- Sales platform terms. Several ebook stores now require a declaration at submission of whether a title was produced with a model.
- Advisory material. Where someone makes decisions on the basis of your content, staying silent about machine origin edges towards misleading them, whatever copyright law says.
- Trust. This always surfaces — later, and more expensively.
That is why every Edulibro file carries the note about machine origin on its colophon page, and it cannot be switched off — including with branding purchased. It is a disclosure to the reader, not our advertising.
Responsibility stays with you
You answer for content you send out under your own brand. Machine origin changes nothing there — just as an error in a letter written in a word processor does not fall on the software vendor. That is where the whole argument for reading the material before publishing comes from.
This post describes the legal position in general terms and is not legal advice. For a specific product and a specific market it is worth checking the details with a lawyer — particularly if you are building a business model on it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell an ebook written by a machine?
Yes, provided the supplier licence permits it. You are selling a copy and your own work on the material, not exclusivity over the content — nobody can stop you selling, and nobody can guarantee similar content will not appear elsewhere.
Do I have to disclose that content was machine-produced?
General law rarely requires it outright, but several sales platforms do in their terms, and with advisory material the general duty not to mislead applies. Practically: disclose.
Who is responsible for an error in such material?
Whoever published it under their own name. Machine origin does not transfer responsibility to the tool provider — just as an error in a document written in a word processor does not fall on the software vendor.