Disney hits Google with cease-and-desist claiming ‘massive’ copyright infringement
Disney sent a defamation letter to Google on Wednesday, claiming the tech giant has infringed on its copyrights. Variety reports.
Disney is accusing the tech giant of copyright infringement on a “massive scale” and claims it has used AI models and services to commercially distribute unauthorized images and videos, according to the letter seen by Variety.
“Google operates as a virtual vending machine capable of widely reproducing, displaying and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works,” the letter said. “And further exacerbating Google’s egregious infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI services feature Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and approved by Disney.”
The letter claims that Google’s AI systems infringe on characters from ‘Frozen’, ‘The Lion King’, ‘Moana’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Deadpool’ and more. Google did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
The move comes on the same day that Disney signed a three-year, $1 billion deal with OpenAI, which will bring its iconic characters to the company’s Sora AI video generator.
