Determining Authorship of Digital Artworks

⏱️ Reading time: 13 min · 📁 Category: Digital Art, FSEK, NFT Law · 📅 Updated 2026

🎨 Determining authorship of digital artworks

Digital artworks have rapidly proliferated through NFT projects, social media posts, AI-assisted production
and collection-based digital designs. Yet the central legal question remains:

📌 Who is the true author of this work?
The designer? The person who minted it? The agency? The employer? The platform?

Under Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works (FSEK), authorship of digital artworks
is determined by creative contribution rather than technical activity.
This article examines the legal criteria for determining authorship of digital artworks
step by step.

🧭 1) Legal framework: Who is the author?

Under FSEK, the author is the person who creates the work.
The key word in that definition is “creates”.

✅ The author: The person who creates the work.
❌ Publishing, minting or selling the work does not automatically make someone its author.

The decisive factor is therefore not whose name appears below a digitally published image,
but who creatively produced that content.

🎨 2) What is a digital artwork?

Digital artworks often fall into the following categories:

• 🖼️ Digital illustration and graphic design
• 🎞️ 3D modeling and animation
• 🎬 Video art and motion design
• 🎵 Digital audio and music compositions
• 🧠 Generative art (algorithmic creation)

Although created digitally, under FSEK these works
may be classified as works of fine art or works of science and literature.

🧩 3) Core criteria for determining authorship 1️⃣ Creative contribution (individual character)

The central criterion is whether the work bears its author’s personal imprint.
Digital production does not remove the requirement for individual character.

Individual-character test:
Did the work result from an ordinary technical operation?
Or does it contain creative choices and an original composition? 2️⃣ The idea–expression distinction

The law protects the concrete expression of an idea rather than the idea alone.
The idea “Let us draw a space-themed character” is not protected;
the actual drawing of that character is protected.

3️⃣ Technical activity versus creative activity

Using Photoshop, minting an NFT or uploading an image
are technical operations. Performing them does not automatically confer authorship.

👥 4) What if several people contributed?

Digital art projects are often teamwork.
Authorship may then arise under three models:

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 A) Joint authorship

If several people contribute creatively and the work is indivisible,
joint authorship may arise.

🧱 B) Combined works

When independently created works are brought together,
each creator holds rights in their own contribution.

🏢 C) Employment relationship (employer–employee)

For digital works created by an employee,
the exercise of economic rights may pass to the employer.
Moral rights, however, generally belong to the creator.

Important:
For agency or corporate production,
the contract terms are decisive. 🤖 5) Authorship of AI-generated digital art

As of 2026, this is the most debated issue.
If a work is produced entirely by AI,
the human creative contribution is disputed.

• 🧠 Is the prompt writer the author?
• ⚙️ The algorithm developer?
• 📦 The platform?

The general tendency in Turkish law is that
authorship does not arise without human creativity.
However, evident human creative direction
strengthens a claim to authorship.

🪙 6) Confusing NFTs with authorship

A common misconception in NFT projects:

“The person who mints the NFT is the author.” ❌

Minting is a technical blockchain recording operation.
Authorship arises from creative activity.

📂 7) How can authorship be proved?

In a dispute, the following are important:

• 📁 Source files (PSD, AI, Blender files, etc.)
• 📅 Production dates and version history
• 📝 Contracts and job descriptions
• 💬 Correspondence and project briefs
• 🔐 Timestamps and digital records

Practical recommendation:
Keeping version records for digital works
is crucial for future rights claims. ⚠️ 8) Most common mistakes

• ❌ Confusing the NFT with the work
• ❌ Commissioning work without an agency agreement
• ❌ Assuming employee-created works automatically belong to the company
• ❌ Automatically treating AI output as a protected work
• ❌ Failing to archive evidence

📌 Conclusion: Who is the author of digital art?

The digital environment does not change legal principles.
Authorship is a creative concept rather than a technical one.

Clear conclusion:
The author is not the person who merely publishes the work technically,
but the person who creates it.

For legal certainty in digital art projects in 2026:

• 📑 Make clear agreements
• 📂 Preserve source files
• 🔍 Clarify authorship from the outset
• ⚖️ Clearly document the relationship between the NFT and its licence

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