It's a puzzle that Hollywood giants and streaming platforms are currently grappling with: how to protect characters and their worlds from artificial intelligence (AI) tools? In early June, Disney and Universal filed lawsuits against Midjourney, the first-ever lawsuit by Hollywood studios against an AI startup. This would actually be the first step in a grand plan to prevent their characters from being "swallowed" by AI tools, reports Bloomberg, this Monday, June 23.
Since the launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI's conversational agent, the giants of audiovisual creation have adopted an ambiguous position with regard to generative AI. On the one hand, they want to use AI to reduce their costs without causing social conflict. But on the other hand, they want to limit as much as possible the unauthorized use of their libraries, characters, and universes in AI tools.
"This is our first case, but it probably won't be the last"
Hollywood believes that its intellectual property has already been and is still being used to train artificial intelligence models. American studios are therefore seeking to set a precedent to protect their most valuable assets: their characters. Disney is said to have initially wondered who to sue, before choosing Midjourney, whose models were trained on characters like Darth Vader, according to the American firm. Especially since the AI startup reportedly did not respond to requests to remove content that infringed its copyright, according to Disney.
Horacio Gutierrez, one of the American firm's lawyers, then reportedly entered the scene. He reportedly sought to rally other entertainment giants, such as Hollywood studios and video streaming platforms. Paramount Global, Warner Bros., Netflix, and Amazon have reportedly declined the offer so far. But Comcast Corp., owner of NBCUniversal, and Universal have agreed to participate in this legal battle, the first round of which pits them against Midjourney.
"This is our first case, but it probably won't be the last," the lawyer said, quoted by our colleagues, referring to "a campaign to protect our intellectual property rights in the world of generative AI." Its goal is to maintain control over its library of characters and universes, and to uphold its right, and the right of other studios and platforms, to authorize or not the commercialization of intellectual property.
The question of "fair use" at the heart of the legal battle
Disney has so far refused to negotiate general licenses for its entire library, but discussions are reportedly underway with certain companies such as OpenAI on specific partnerships. For example, a license has already been granted for the voice of Darth Vader in the video game Fortnite.
At the heart of this legal battle remains the interpretation of what is called "fair use." This exception to copyright law in the United States can, in certain cases, allow the use of copyrighted content without authorization. AI giants like OpenAI and Meta have already put forward this exception to justify training their large language models on copyrighted works, without having to obtain authorization.
Will judges or legislators share this opinion? While they wait to decide, which could take time, the entertainment industries do not intend to sit idly by. It remains to be seen what the next step will be, after Midjourney, to prevent characters and universes from being reproduced or reused by users of AI tools without any "control."
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