Who owns the models you generate
3 min read
There are two separate questions and they get conflated. First: what does the service's own licence let you do with this model? That has a clear answer, written into the terms. Second: does copyright arise in AI output at all? That answer varies by country and is not settled. Below, each one on its own.
First question: what the service permits
Generated models are licensed to the user, and the scope of that licence depends on the PLAN. Three uses are treated separately:
| Use | Trial and Pro | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Use on your own server | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Editing and building on it | Allowed | Allowed |
| Screenshots and promotion | Allowed | Allowed |
| Selling as a pack | No | Yes |
| Distributing to third parties | No | Yes |
The detail that matters most: the right follows the plan in force AT THE TIME OF GENERATION. A model made on Team stays sellable even if you later change plan; a model made on Pro does not become sellable by upgrading afterwards.
The reason is practical: the model file leaves the site and passes from hand to hand, and rights that change after the fact would be impossible for whoever received it to track. So the licence text is written into the downloaded pack as it stood at generation time.
The one thing that never transfers is the service itself: you can sell the model, not your MineModel AI account or your generation credits.
Second question: does copyright arise
This is separate and murkier. The general shape can be summarised as follows, but it varies by country and keeps moving:
- Some legal systems require human authorship for copyright. That fully automated output may not attract protection is a position argued in more than one country.
- Human contribution changes the picture. Writing the description, selecting the result, asking for changes and editing the model by hand can all count as human input, and protection tends to widen with it.
- A contract is not copyright. The permission we grant is a usage licence; it says "you may use this file in these ways", not "you are the copyright holder of this file".
- Trademark and design rights are separate. Turning an existing brand's logo or a protected design into a model causes problems regardless of how the output was produced.
What to do in practice
- If you intend to sell, generate on Team. The right is fixed at generation time and cannot be corrected later.
- Keep the licence file in the pack you downloaded. It is the only record of what rights that model was made under.
- Do not model existing brands. Producing and selling a recognisable object from a game, film or company is risky regardless of how it was made.
- Tell your customers what they are buying. If you sell a pack, you decide whether the buyer may use it on their own server or resell it further.
Two things people conflate
"I can sell this model" and "this model is mine" are not the same claim. The first is a permission we granted; the second is a legal conclusion that does not follow from that permission.
Likewise "I can use it on my server" and "I can hand the models over when I sell my server" differ. The second is distribution, and it is outside the Trial and Pro scope.
For the full text see the content licence page, and write to destek@minemodelai.com about anything you are unsure of.
Common questions
- Can I sell a model I generated?
- Only if it was generated on the Team plan. The right follows the plan in force at generation time; upgrading later does not make earlier models sellable.
- Is there a limit on using it on my own server?
- No. Every plan includes unlimited use on servers you run yourself; that is the scope of the licence, not a generation limit.
- Do I own the copyright in the model?
- That follows from law rather than from our terms and varies by country. What we grant is a usage licence, not a determination of copyright ownership. Consult a lawyer before making a commercial decision.
- If I change plan, do the rights on my old models change?
- No. Rights are fixed at generation time and written into the licence file inside the pack you downloaded; a plan change does not apply retroactively.