Key facts
- AI adoption in entertainment raises unresolved copyright questions
- Indian copyright law was not designed for generative AI
- Studios, OTT platforms and creators all face unclear liability
- International legal cases on AI and copyright are being watched closely
Entertainment companies in India and globally are grappling with an uncomfortable reality: the generative AI tools they are adopting to cut costs and accelerate production may come bundled with serious copyright risk. Every prompt fed into an AI system can produce output that draws, in opaque ways, on copyrighted material ingested during the model's training — and the legal question of who owns what in that output remains largely unsettled.
For Indian studios, OTT platforms, and production houses now experimenting with AI for tasks ranging from scriptwriting assistance to visual effects and music generation, the stakes are significant. India's copyright law, like most national frameworks, was not designed with generative AI in mind, leaving creators, studios, and platforms in a grey zone where liability is unclear.
The concern is particularly sharp for original creators — screenwriters, composers, lyricists, and artists — whose existing work may have been used to train AI models without consent or compensation. Several international legal cases are already testing these questions in US and European courts, and their outcomes are expected to influence how Indian courts and regulators approach similar disputes.
The Economic Times report highlights the emerging tension between the efficiency gains AI promises to entertainment businesses and the intellectual property minefield it introduces. As Indian streaming platforms scale up original content production, and as AI tools become cheaper and more powerful, the copyright question is likely to move from a background concern to a front-and-centre legal and commercial challenge.