AI, Art & Copyright Law

Margaritha T. Windisch

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Law & Economics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. In my interdisciplinary research, I employ empirical methods to investigate legally relevant questions in copyright theory, authorship, and infringement and investigate interactions with generative AI. I conduct experiments with artists, copyright law experts, and laypeople to shed light on gaps and overlaps in perceptions, with a focus on visual arts.

As a legal scholar with a background in both law and the arts, I aim to make copyright law also accessible to artists, designers, and creatives—especially in the age of generative AI. Through engaging workshops, seminars, and collaborations with art schools and cultural institutions, I want to bridge the often intimidating world of law with the everyday realities of artistic practice. I want to empower creatives to understand and navigate their rights, foster informed dialogue, and build a shared language between legal theory and creative expression. I believe that demystifying law is essential to protecting and nurturing creative work in our rapidly changing world.

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Selected Talsk, Panels & Workshops

Cultural Initiatives:

Co-organization and panel participation, Authorship, AI & Art (House of Electronic Arts, Basel, 2025)
Panel participation, Copyright in the Age of AI (Avant Première Music + Media Market Berlin, 2024)
Podcast interview, AI: Copyright and Regulation (Podcast Kunstlicht, Zurich University of the Arts, with Eva Pauline Bossow and Sabrina Konrad (Swiss Federal Institute for Intellectual Property), 2024)
Organization and panel participation, Copyright, AI & Art (ETH AI Center, 2023)
Panel participation, Roundtable: Rage Against the Machine? (International Short Film Festival Winterthur, 2023)
Workshop speaker, Film Art in Transition: AI & the Challenges of Copyright (Swiss Association for Film Directors and Screenwriters, 2023)

Academic Conferences:

Workshop on Empirical Methods in IP (Northwestern University, USA, 2025)
European Society for Empirical Legal Studies Conference (Université Toulouse Capitole, France, 2025)
IP Scholars Conference (University of California, Berkeley, USA, 2024)
Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (Emory University, USA, 2024)
Munich Summer Institute (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany, 2022)
CREATe Copyright Evidence Conference (University of Glasgow, UK, 2022)
Brownbag Seminars (ETH Zurich and University of Zurich, 2022–2025)

Awards

2nd Place, Young Scholar Recognition, European Society for Empirical Legal Studies Conference (Toulouse, 2025)
Best Performing Teamleader, AIESEC Vienna WU (Vienna, 2016)

Publications

The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age (with Christian Peukert), Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–27 (2024)
21 for 2021: Copyright, re-use and digital business models (with Christian Peukert), CREATe Blog (2021)

Working Papers

Unveiling the Bond Between Artists and Their Work: A Vignette Study, Center for Law & Economics Working Paper Series (2025)
How Laypeople Perceive Substantial Similarity in Copyright Infringement
Generative AI, Copyright and the Role of Artistic Style: An Empirical Analysis, mit Prof. Stefan Bechtold
Cognitive and Behavioral Perspectives on Copyright Law: Towards a Holistic Approach

Teaching Portfolio

Generative AI & the Law: Copyright, Privacy, Contracts and Compliance (lecturer at ETH Zurich, Sept-Dec 2025)
Big Data, Law & Policy (teaching assistant to Prof. Stefan Bechtold at ETH Zurich, Feb-June 2023)
Let's talk about Digital Markets (strategy, design & video content creation for Prof. Christian Peukert, HEC Lausanne, Switzerland)

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