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Author	Dr Sik Cheng Peng
Organisation/Institution	University of Malaya, Faculty of Law
Country	MALAYSIA
Panel	Intellectual Property Rights
Title	Safeguarding Human Authorship in the Age of AI: Re-Examining Copyright Presumptions for a Sustainable and Just Creative Future in Asia
Abstract	This paper examines the necessity of maintaining human authorship as a cornerstone of copyright protection amid the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI). The landmark case Zarya of the Dawn illustrates the U.S. Copyright Office’s insistence on human contribution for a work to qualify for copyright protection. Asian jurisdictions, including China, Japan, and South Korea, share this emphasis, though thresholds for human authorship may vary. The Zarya case also highlights how AI-generated works can be misattributed unless disclosed by the deployer. In many Asian contexts, statutory presumptions—such as Malaysia’s prima facie presumption under section 42 of the Copyright Act 1987—may unintentionally legitimize false claims of human authorship, undermining justice and sustainability in the creative sector. The paper makes three contributions. First, it analyses how human creative intervention is applied in selected Asian jurisdictions, highlighting differences in originality and creative-control thresholds. Second, it critiques statutory presumptions that may unfairly allocate rights to AI deployers rather than genuine human creators. Third, it proposes three reforms to promote sustainability, justice, and regional integration: (1) adoption of a significant-human-contribution test for authorship; (2) mandatory disclosure of AI-assisted contributions; and (3) cross-border evidentiary consistency within ASEAN and APEC frameworks. Notably, South Korea’s approach penalizing misrepresentation of AI outputs during copyright registration may offer a model for other jurisdictions. By emphasizing human creativity and proposing practical legal and administrative measures, this paper advocates for an authentically human-centred creative economy in Asia while supporting coherent regional legal integration in the face of technological disruption.
Biography	Dr. Cheng Peng Sik is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya, where she specialises in intellectual property law with a focus on copyright, digital technology, and artificial intelligence. She obtained her PhD, LLM, and LLB (Hons) in Law from Universiti Malaya. Her scholarship explores the intersection of law, creativity, and technology, particularly the legal challenges posed by emerging digital innovations to traditional copyright doctrines. Dr. Sik is the author of Digital Copyright Law of Malaysia (Sweet & Maxwell, 2020) and co-author of Legal Issues in Cloud Computing in Malaysia (Thomson Reuters, 2018). Her research has been published in leading international and regional journals, including the Journal of World Intellectual Property, Journal of World Trade, and Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. She has presented papers at several WIPO-WTO Colloquium for Intellectual Property Teachers and Researchers, and international forums hosted by the Singapore Management University and Zhejiang University. Dr. Sik has led and collaborated on multiple funded projects concerning copyright, AI, and property law reform in Malaysia. Her current research examines authorship and ownership in AI-generated works, the evolution of moral rights, and the balance between public and private interests in intellectual property, intangible assets, and land co-ownership.