Glossary
AI Model Rights and Licensing
Who owns AI-generated images, what licences govern the models that create them, and what you can legally do with the output.
AI model licensing covers two separate questions: (1) what can you do with the model weights themselves, and (2) who owns the copyright in the images the model produces.
Model licences: open-source AI models ship with a range of licences. Stable Diffusion 1.5 and SDXL use the CreativeML OpenRAIL-M licence, which permits commercial use but restricts generating illegal content and requires the licence to be passed down in derivatives. Flux Dev is under a non-commercial licence (no revenue-generating use). Flux Pro is an API-only commercial model. Midjourney, DALL·E, and Firefly have proprietary licences with specific commercial tiers.
Copyright in AI output: as of 2025, US courts and the Copyright Office have consistently held that purely AI-generated images — with no human creative authorship — are not eligible for copyright protection. The UK, EU, and most other jurisdictions hold similar positions, though some (e.g., China) take a different view. Images where a human selects, arranges, and modifies outputs may qualify for thin copyright in the human-authored elements.
Commercial use rights: most hosted AI image services grant you broad commercial rights to their output as part of the subscription. Verify the specific terms — Midjourney's basic plan historically did not grant commercial rights; Synexa grants full commercial rights to all generated images under paid plans.
Training data disputes: ongoing litigation (e.g., Getty Images v. Stability AI, multiple class actions by artists) may eventually impose licensing obligations on model trainers. This area is rapidly evolving — monitor case outcomes if you are building commercial products on AI-generated content.
Deepfake and likeness laws: generating images of real, identifiable people without consent is legally risky even if the image is technically 'AI-generated'. Many US states have celebrity likeness and deepfake-specific laws. Always obtain consent before training on or generating likenesses of real individuals.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I sell AI-generated images?
- Generally yes, subject to the model's licence terms. Most commercial AI image platforms (including Synexa) grant you rights to sell outputs. Purely AI-generated images currently lack copyright protection in the US, so buyers cannot own the copyright either — they own the file.
- Do I own images generated on Synexa?
- Yes. Synexa's terms grant you full commercial rights to all images you generate. Synexa does not claim ownership of your outputs.
- Is it legal to use AI-generated images in advertising?
- Yes in most jurisdictions, subject to disclosure requirements for AI-generated content in advertising where required by local law (e.g., FTC guidelines, EU AI Act).
- Can AI-generated images be trademarked?
- Logos and brand marks that are entirely AI-generated without substantial human authorship may face challenges in trademark registration. Including human-designed elements strengthens the application.