Banana republic: copyright law and the extractive logic of generative AI

Abstract This article uses Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian, a banana duct-taped to a gallery wall, as a metaphor to examine the extractive dynamics of generative artificial intelligence (AI). It argues that the AI-driven creative economy replicates colonial patterns of appropriation, transforming human expression into commodified outputs while marginalizing the creators whose work makes these systems possible. Through the figures of the fruit seller, the buyer and the artist, the article interrogates who is valued, who is erased and who reaps the rewards in this evolving landscape. The analysis turns next to the banana itself as an object of constructed value, exploring how copyright’s doctrines of authorship, originality and fair use struggle to accommodate the layered and distributed nature of AI-mediated creation. These doctrinal limitations, the article contends, leave creators vulnerable while enabling dominant platforms to entrench extractive practices under the guise of innovation. Finally, the article examines the ‘wall’, the metaphorical and institutional surfaces against which generative AI is made legible and legitimate. It begins by situating current AI governance within broader global trends of legal fragmentation and jurisdictional arbitrage, highlighting how regulatory divergence reflects deeper normative commitments—some prioritizing innovation, others dignity and distributive justice. It then critiques reactive proposals that rely on private licensing regimes or piecemeal litigation, arguing that such approaches risk entrenching opacity and extractive control. In their place, the article advocates for structural reforms grounded in transparency, attribution and participatory design, legal scaffolding that can recognize distributed authorship and protect against enclosure. Without these interventions, the generative AI economy may replicate the very conditions that Comedian satirizes: spectacle without substance, progress without equity.