Wuhan court counts AI costs in a copyright damages award

A company used AI tools to make a one-hour short drama in early 2026 and published it on platforms including WeChat. The next day, another company copied the drama, changed its title and ran advertisements in it. A Wuhan court awarded the original producer 20,000 yuan, about $2,900.

The decision stands out because the court counted the cost of AI use as part of its damages calculation. According to The National Law Review, it included token usage and licensing fees for AI tools. The court also considered more familiar factors, including the drama’s length, how widely it was distributed and how long the copied version remained in circulation.

Why did the court protect the drama?

The court treated the production as a protectable audiovisual work, reasoning that employees made creative decisions at each stage. Those choices included writing the script, designing prompts, selecting AI-generated material and editing the final version. In the court’s view, AI was a tool in a human-led process.

That does not establish that every work made with AI qualifies for copyright protection. The ruling turned on the human creative input the court identified in this particular production. China has previously recognized copyright in an AI-generated image: a Beijing court did so in 2023.

What records should creators keep?

The court recommended that creators preserve materials showing how a project was made, including scripts, prompt drafts and project files. Those records could help document where people made creative choices and what tools and resources were used.

The decision also makes AI production expenses relevant to a copyright dispute, rather than treating them as separate from the work’s creation. The report does not provide a detailed formula for how token or licensing costs affected the final award, so it is unclear how much weight those expenses carried compared with the other factors.