December 11Dec 11 Quote In what may prove to be a milestone move for major Hollywood studios, Disney has decided to partner with OpenAI and invest $1 billion in the Sam Altman-run artificial intelligence juggernaut as well as ink a licensing deal that would allow users of its AI video creation platform Sora to create clips using iconic characters from Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises. Careening headlong into the abyss, civilization had a good run if a bit bumpy. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-to-invest-1-billion-in-openai-in-major-deal-that-boosts-sora-1236447942/ Edited December 12Dec 12 by Michael Knight
December 11Dec 11 Hypocrites: https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/disney-google-ai-copyright-infringement-cease-and-desist-letter-1236606429/ It's ok when WE do it, but not anyone else. Fuck AI.
December 12Dec 12 12 hours ago, CumStainedJorts said: Hypocrites: https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/disney-google-ai-copyright-infringement-cease-and-desist-letter-1236606429/ It's ok when WE do it, but not anyone else. Fuck AI. They own the IP. How is it hypocritical?
December 12Dec 12 9 hours ago, TrashMaster G said: They own the IP. How is it hypocritical? OpenAI steals shitloads of stuff, and they're investing in that machine (to make a profit). Ok for me, not for thee. https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/wga-disney-openai-deal-theft-of-our-work-1236606872/ Edited December 12Dec 12 by CumStainedJorts
December 12Dec 12 31 minutes ago, CumStainedJorts said: OpenAI steals shitloads of stuff, and they're investing in that machine (to make a profit). Ok for me, not for thee. https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/wga-disney-openai-deal-theft-of-our-work-1236606872/ Well, they're also licensing their IP to OpenAI for an undisclosed sum. This is, presumably, what all IP owners want from AI.
December 12Dec 12 Just now, TwiceHorn said: Well, they're also licensing their IP to OpenAI for an undisclosed sum. This is, presumably, what all IP owners want from AI. The licensing deal is separate from their $1 billion investment. It's still hypocritical. Also, their licensing deal skirts around WAG royalties.
December 12Dec 12 14 minutes ago, CumStainedJorts said: The licensing deal is separate from their $1 billion investment. It's still hypocritical. Also, their licensing deal skirts around WAG royalties. WAG? I suppose their strategy is to be a "first adopter," that is to let AI freely use their content/characters to generate license revenue and/or promote the characters. It wouldn't surprise me if the investment is tied to some sort of SEO to return Disney characters more often than any other licensed property, and certainly over unlicensed and presumably infringing characters/IP. I'm not a big fan of AI and would probably prefer it if IP owners boycotted entirely and just kept suing. But that's probably not commercially realistic. Edited December 12Dec 12 by TwiceHorn
December 12Dec 12 There isn't anything hypocritical about it, this is their IP they are free to do whatever they want with it. And letting any and everyone run free with it is their right. The biggest issue is that is foolish for them to do this on their own. They should band up with every other studio and work this as a package deal. $1 Billion is chump change for these companies, they should command $100 Billion - maybe more - as a group. These companies don't understand how much their own IP is worth. And it's just dumb to see them give it away for really pennies.
December 12Dec 12 6 minutes ago, Captain Ron said: There isn't anything hypocritical about it, this is their IP they are free to do whatever they want with it. And letting any and everyone run free with it is their right. How are people not getting that they will profit off of stolen IP that they don't own? OpenAI isn't built out of solely disney's licensed IP. They're investing in the company wholesale which is attempting to generate profit from other IPs that they didn't license. Ignore the licensing bit. The hypocritical part is that they're investing OpenAI period. OpenAI engages in IP theft. The licensing deal is entirely separate and wasn't even my point, it's just that you can't find info about it right now because they announced both their investment and licensing deal at the same time. Disney now owns a $1 billion equity stake of a company whose entire business model is stealing IP. Edited December 12Dec 12 by CumStainedJorts
December 12Dec 12 37 minutes ago, CumStainedJorts said: How are people not getting that they will profit off of stolen IP that they don't own? OpenAI isn't built out of solely disney's licensed IP. They're investing in the company wholesale which is attempting to generate profit from other IPs that they didn't license. Ignore the licensing bit. The hypocritical part is that they're investing OpenAI period. OpenAI engages in IP theft. The licensing deal is entirely separate and wasn't even my point, it's just that you can't find info about it right now because they announced both their investment and licensing deal at the same time. Disney now owns a $1 billion equity stake of a company whose entire business model is stealing IP. Disney could be gambling that they'll be enjoined from infringing IP or will voluntarily stop. And, they may be gaining an advantage in that by licensing, OpenAI can return pure Mickey Mouse or Moana results or whatever, whereas most copyright infringement by AI is based on either a) less than identical similarity to copyright content or b) minimal no similarity, just the infringing act of training on and making unlawful reproductions of copyright content in the process.
December 12Dec 12 4 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said: Disney could be gambling that they'll be enjoined from infringing IP or will voluntarily stop. p.s. those "pure disney results" are still generated by stolen IP. I don't think you understand how AI image generation works. Edited December 12Dec 12 by CumStainedJorts
December 12Dec 12 I think the Hollywood "system" or "model" or whatever entertainment and media industry norms and understandings we've had for the last 125 years is untenable. And Disney is smart (an analytics and data company cosplaying as a media company) and sees the writing on the wall. This coupled with the Netflix acquistion of WB when/if it goes through, there just isn't much to look forward to in that world.
December 13Dec 13 2 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said: Good start I shouldn’t laugh, but that’s hilariously funny. Can’t wait to see Mickey and Minnie’s Bonnie and Clyde remake.
December 13Dec 13 3 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said: Good start User name does not check out, but Mikey has poor trigger control, which lends authenticity to the picture. Edited December 13Dec 13 by NotActuallyALonghorn
December 13Dec 13 20 hours ago, CumStainedJorts said: p.s. those "pure disney results" are still generated by stolen IP. I don't think you understand how AI image generation works. I am perhaps more familiar with the way textual output is generated, but I'm not sure it matters very much. There are two theories or ways that copyright is infringed by AI, both implicating the reproduction right. First, training a model almost inevitably requires making a copy of a work to feed it to the network. And, in many cases, the AI companies admit using pirated copies of works for training purposes. The second is the output of the network, which may be substantially similar to the original work on which it was trained, thus infringing the reproduction right. That is, it looks like say, Mickey Mouse, instead of some temu version. I'm guessing Disney's license gave them the right to train on Disney content and also to return substantially similar results to Disney works. So you can prompt it to do "Mickey cornholing Minnie" and get it. You can make a sort of metaphysical argument that somewhere between input and output, at least partial images or text fragments that may be infringing (substantially similar to a training input) are used as the pattern that is recognized, but that's getting pretty abstract and is probably likely to be found "transformative fair use." So, license or otherwise remove those infringing aspects of AI, and there's no copyright infringement. If there's some other theory, I'm interested to hear it.
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