Which view does the first answer in the passage rest on?
When a machine produces an image or a poem, who is its author? One answer is that nobody is: authorship requires a mind that intends a meaning, and a program only follows instructions. Another is that the person who wrote the prompt is the author, as a photographer is the author of a photograph taken with a camera that did most of the work. The comparison with photography is instructive but incomplete. The photographer chooses the subject, the angle and the moment; a loosely worded prompt may leave nearly every decision to the system. Perhaps authorship comes in degrees, rising with the number of meaningful choices made by the person. On that view the law need not search for a single answer, but only decide how much creative control justifies protection.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Only a mind that intends a meaning can be an author
- Step 1: The first answer says authorship requires a mind that intends a meaning, and a program only follows instructions.
- Step 2: That is the premise.
Answer
Only a mind that intends a meaning can be an author.
Why not the others: The first answer in the passage denies authorship to programs because they have no mind; it does not praise programs as creative, treat any tool-user as an author, rank poems over images or require two authors.
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