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Who owns an AI-built website?

Plain-English guidance on copyright and IP when your AI agent builds your site. It's practical guidance, not legal advice: if something matters to your business, ask a solicitor.

Your site
Yours, and so is what's published on it
AI text
Edit it and add what only you know
Images
Your own, or stock with a record of where from
Before launch
An eight-point checklist

Last updated 19 October 2026

The short answer: the site is yours, and so is the responsibility for what's on it. Here's how to make sure what you publish really is yours to use.

1. Your text

Text an AI writes from a prompt isn't automatically protected by copyright in the UK. Whether there's enough human authorship is unsettled, and the law on "computer-generated works" (section 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) is under review.

In practice, the more of you that goes into it, the more it's yours. Edit what the AI writes, add what only you know (your prices, your area, how you work, real examples) and make it sound like you. Never publish raw output: a competitor can get near-identical text from the same prompt.

2. Your images

  • Don't use AI-generated images of real people, logos, or recognisable brands and characters.
  • Use your own photos where you can. They're yours, and they look like your business.
  • Stock photos need a licence you've kept a record of. Unsplash and Pexels are fine for commercial use with no credit required (a credit is appreciated), but a recognisable person or brand in a photo doesn't mean they endorse you.
  • Keep a note of where every image came from: your own, a stock site and its link, or AI-generated.

3. Other people's content

  • An AI can reproduce text from other sites, especially if you paste in a competitor's page as "inspiration". Describe what you want instead, or rewrite it fully.
  • Reviews, testimonials and quotes need the person's permission, and must be real. Don't let the AI write them.
  • Fonts and icons need licences. The ones Prooflive.ai builds with by default are licensed for your site: Google Fonts (open font licences) and Material Design Icons (Apache 2.0). If you bring your own, check its licence covers websites.

4. Your business details

An AI will happily invent plausible prices, opening hours and claims such as "award-winning" or "fully insured". Check every factual statement before you publish it. Prooflive.ai flags invented figures and reviews as your agent builds, but you're the one who knows what's true.

Some sectors have advertising rules the AI doesn't know: financial services, legal services, health and beauty treatments, and food (including allergen information). The CAP Code applies to every UK business's marketing claims, so check your sector's rules too.

5. Before you go live

  • The text is rewritten in your own words.
  • Every fact is checked: prices, hours, qualifications, claims.
  • Every image's source is recorded.
  • No real people, logos or brands in AI-generated images.
  • Every review, testimonial and photo of a person has their permission.
  • The name you trade under has been checked for trade marks (search the UK IPO register).
  • A privacy policy and cookie notice are in place.
  • Your contact details are correct.

What we ask of you is set out in our terms (section 4), and you can report content you think infringes your rights under section 7.