One day before revealing a $1 billion investment in OpenAI, a move that could have big impact on Hollywood, Disney claimed that Google was committing copyright theft on a “massive scale”. According to reports from Variety and Verge, Disney says Google’s AI systems have produced material that looks like characters from Frozen, Deadpool, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more.
Disney sends cease-and-desist letter to Google
Disney attorneys on Wednesday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google telling them to put a stop to the alleged infringement.
According to the letter sent to Google’s general counsel by the law firm Jenner & Block on Disney’s behalf, Disney argues that Google is copying large amounts of Disney’s copyrighted content without permission to train and develop its generative AI models and services. Disney also says Google is using these AI tools to create and distribute material to the public that unlawfully mirrors Disney’s original works, a Variety report said.
The report added that the letter goes on to say that Google is essentially acting like a “virtual vending machine” that can “reproduce, render and distribute” Disney’s well-known characters and other copyrighted characters on a huge scale. It also states that many of the AI-generated images carry the Gemini logo, which Disney says wrongly suggests that Google’s use of Disney’s intellectual property has Disney’s approval.
Variety, which also examined the letter, reports that Disney has accused Google’s AI services of generating content resembling characters from numerous Disney films including Frozen, The Lion King, Moana, The Little Mermaid, Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, Toy Story, Brave, Ratatouille, Monsters Inc., Lilo & Stitch, and Inside Out—as well as major franchises including Star Wars, The Simpsons, and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man.
The examples Disney provided include images it says were produced by Google’s AI tools through text prompts, such as one featuring Darth Vader.
What did Google say to the alleged claims?
When Variety reached out for a comment from Google, a spokesperson said that it has had a long, positive working relationship with Disney and plans to keep engaing with them. The company also noted that its AI models are trained on publicly available information from the open web and that it has created tools, such as Google-extended and YouTube’s Content ID, to help websites and copyright owners manage how their material is used.
Disney raised concerns with Google for months
The Variety reported that Disney had raised the issue with Google for months but no action or response from take from their side.
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company has always been firm about defending its intellectual property and has taken action against other businesses that failed to respect it. He described this situation as “another example of just doing that.”
Iger explained that Disney had already been talking with Google to raise concerns about how its AI systems were using Disney-owned material. But after those discussions went nowhere, Disney felt it had to move forward with a cease-and-desist letter.
Disney, in the letter, has asked Google to put strong technical safeguards in place across its AI services and in any Google products that use those AI systems, to prevent similar issues from happening again.
The letter adds that Disney won’t accept any unauthorised commercial use of its characters or stories by AI platforms. It also argues that Google’s actions are especially damaging because the company is using its massive reach to spread these AI tools, while benefiting from the popularity of Disney content that Disney says has been improperly reproduced.