When AI Lowers the Bar for Film and Television Creation to Zero, What Can Protect Your Work?

AI drops the barrier — and the law lags

It has been reported that an AI‑made short drama about the Han dynasty general 霍去病 reportedly cost only about ¥3,000 in compute to produce and then went viral online. Can an entirely AI‑generated film be monetized? According to China's Copyright Law (著作权法), works created "entirely" by AI may not qualify for copyright protection — which means creators could find themselves unable to stop others from copying or charging for the same piece. That legal gap turns distribution success into a potential liability.

How creators are exposed

AI dramatically lowers production costs. Good scripts that once took months to hone can be "rewritten" in seconds by bad‑faith actors using generative tools. Under the idea‑expression dichotomy in copyright law, ideas and concepts are not protected; only specific expressions are. Without protectable expression, every hit becomes a beacon in a "dark forest" for imitators. It has been reported that Hongguo Short Drama (红果短剧) recently scrapped minimum guarantees for live‑action creators — a move some see as platforms anticipating a flood of unprotected AI content and a desire to avoid complex copyright disputes.

What can actually protect a creator

Not all is lost. The practical answer is building an IP moat of identifiable, original assets that AI can’t cheaply neutralize. Portrait and personality rights, licensed or original virtual likenesses, character design art, costume and set design, theme music and distinctive audio branding, even systematic narrative mechanics (recurring catchphrases, tightly defined relationship networks, a unique "worldview" language) can be registered or asserted as protectable works. Names and logos can be trademarked. Combined, these elements form a rights matrix: single elements may be mimicable, but the cost and legal risk of copying a bundled visual‑music‑character ecosystem rises sharply.

A playbook and a warning

There is a proven model. Koei (光荣), the Japanese studio behind the long‑running Three Kingdoms (三国志) games, repeatedly reimagined a public‑domain subject into a set of recognisable, copyrighted visual and gameplay conventions; that sustained investment turned shared history into an exclusive commercial identity. Alibaba Culture & Entertainment (阿里大文娱) secured success for its licensed Three Kingdoms title in part because it bought into that established IP language. In the global context — where debates over generative AI, cross‑border enforcement and platform governance are intensifying — creators should treat IP construction as defence, not afterthought: a great script can win eyeballs, but a robust IP matrix is what keeps the market.