As Disney inks a $1 billion deal with OpenAI to license its characters for AI videos, the entertainment giant is also going after Google. Disney sent Google a cease-and-desist letter Wednesday, alleging that Google AI models are infringing on its copyright protections on a “massive scale.”
“Google’s AI Services are designed to free ride off Disney’s intellectual property. 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,” the letter reads. “Instead, Google continues to directly exploit Disney’s copyrights for commercial gain.”
Google has released a major overhaul to its AI products with Gemini 3, which includes the second generation of its popular nano banana pro AI image model. There has been a massive uptick in the popularity and ability of creative AI tools this year. New models give users the ability to create ultra-realistic AI images and videos. This ability has long worried copyright and intellectual property owners, and improvements in AI models this year have brought those concerns into clearer view. Disney, one of the biggest intellectual property owners, has become central to such legal and ethical debates.
The letter outlines Disney’s concerns that Google is using its position as a market leader to create and disseminate AI content. As the parent company of YouTube, Google is “flooding the market with infringing works, and reaping enormous profits and other value from its unlawful, harmful and damaging exploitation of Disney’s copyrighted works,” the letter says. Disney says it brought its concerns to Google’s attention months ago, but the tech company did nothing in response, leading to the cease-and-desist letter this week.
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Disney, along with Universal and Warner Bros., had already filed lawsuits against Midjourney AI over similar infringement concerns, calling the AI company “a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” Disney’s complaint in the new cease-and-desist letter deals with the same issue that Google AI users can use its models to create content that is too similar to its copyrighted characters like Darth Vader. But while Disney takes legal action against Google, it has also explored licensing opportunities with other AI companies like OpenAI.
On Thursday, Disney announced it had inked a $1 billion deal with OpenAI, one of the biggest competitors to Google. The deal gives OpenAI clearance to use more than 200 iconic Disney characters in AI images and Sora videos, including those from Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. The deal makes Disney a “major customer” of OpenAI, bringing ChatGPT to Disney employees and select Sora AI videos to Disney Plus. This is a markedly different approach from previous AI-related legal action taken by Disney.
CNET reached out to Google for comment but did not receive a response before publication. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, parent company of CNET, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
For more, check out the new pricing for Disney Plus, Hulu Live and ESPN and our guide to understanding copyright and AI.
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