The Moscow City Court issued a ruling on August 24, 2026, in case number 33-33231/2026, overturning a previous decision by the Presnensky District Court regarding copyright infringement.
The plaintiff claimed exclusive rights to derivative works created by modifying images of the Mona Lisa and the Statue of Liberty. The defendant argued that the changes were insufficient to qualify as new creative works.
The initial court ruling denied the plaintiff's compensation claim, citing that the works were created using artificial intelligence and therefore lacked the human creative input required for copyright protection.
The appellate court determined that the works were created in 2017 and 2018 using Adobe Photoshop, a period when generative AI tools for image creation were not publicly available.
The court concluded that the use of professional graphic software constitutes a manual creative process, similar to using a brush or camera, and that the works are independent objects of copyright.
