Disney sends cease-and-desist to Google, alleging copyright infringement
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The Walt Disney Co on Wednesday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, alleging the tech giant has been infringing on its works to train and develop generative AI models without compensation, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The letter puts copyright pressure on Google, which to date has been less aggressive about striking partnerships with copyright owners than some peers like OpenAI.
Zoom in: The letter, sent from David Singer, an attorney representing Disney, alleges Google's "willful infringement is especially alarming because it is leveraging its dominance in generative AI and across multiple other markets to make its infringing AI Services as widely available as possible."
- It alleges Google has already integrated its AI services into many of its existing products and services, including its Workspace applications and YouTube.
- "Google's AI Services are designed to free ride off Disney's intellectual property," the letter reads. "Google has refused to implement any technological measures to mitigate or prevent copyright infringement, even though such measures are readily available and being used by Google's competitors. Instead, Google continues to directly exploit Disney's copyrights for commercial gain."
Zoom out: Disney's lawyer claims the company has been raising its concerns with Google for months, "but Google has done nothing in response."
- "If anything, Google's infringement has only increased during that time," he writes.
The other side: "We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them," Google said in a statement.
- "More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content."
The big picture: Disney has taken a leadership position in Hollywood when it comes to pressuring AI firms over the fair use of content. Its efforts so far have yielded some positive results.
- Disney struck a comprehensive deal with OpenAI on Thursday. OpenAI originally said IP owners would have to opt-out of having their copyrighted characters included in its Sora service, but quickly changed its position to an opt-in policy after Hollywood backlash.
- In September, the company sent a cease and desist letter to Character.AI with similar copyright allegations. The letter forced Character.AI to make changes to the way it used Disney's intellectual property.
- In June, the entertainment giant — alongside NBCUniversal — became the first major studio to sue a generative AI company when it filed a complaint against Midjourney. Warner Bros. Discovery sued Midjourney in early September.
- Earlier this month, Disney teamed with NBCU and WBD to sue the Chinese AI firm MiniMax, alleging large-scale piracy of their respective studios' copyrighted works.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a Google statement.
