MediaNama’s Take: OpenAI’s assumption that every piece of online content belongs to its AI models and products, unless original copyright owners actively opt out, is exploitative and should be reversed. However, Disney’s three‑year licence with Sora grants access to over 200 characters while expressly excluding “likenesses or voices”, leaving a loophole for misuse, which is a welcome move in the GenAI content generation business.
The licensing deal and Disney’s inclination to include Sora’s AI-generated content into its streaming platform also indicate a possible reimagination of fan fiction or fan theories, as they can now use the IP-protected characters to visualise the parallel fan fiction stories. However, the question then remains, who owns the original fan fiction content, which is based on Disney’s IP and generated through OpenAI’s Sora? Can the writer-creator-prompter of the “original” fan fiction claim the new copyrights?
Nonetheless, personality rights protection in the GenAI content generation business is very crucial. Without its protection, actors and creators are vulnerable to being depicted (read generated) in harmful and misleading ways, and probably stripping them of moral rights over their work.
What’s the News?
The Walt Disney Company has entered a three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI’s AI-based audio-video generating vertical, Sora. This means that users of the Sora platform will have access to over 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters, whose Intellectual Properties (IP) are with Disney.
It is important to note that the agreement doesn’t include any “likenesses or voices”, indicating the restrictions that the personality rights doctrine puts on the AI-driven usage and misuse of real-life people, particularly celebrities. This aligns with 2024’s California state law that requires media studios to obtain consent before using any actors’ or deceased artists’ likeness for AI-generated ‘digital replicas’.
Interestingly, on the same day of the deal, December 10, Disney reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google to stop the alleged copyright infringement on a “massive scale”.
What does the Disney-Sora deal say?
After the launch of OpenAI’s Sora platform, the Disney-Sora licensing deals became the first such deal. In addition to the licensing agreements, Disney will also become a major OpenAI customer by using the company’s employees and APIs to build new tools and “experiences”, including for Disney+, its video-streaming platform.
As per their licensing terms, the users can also watch the “curated selections of Sora-generated videos” on the Disney+ streaming platform. “Sora and ChatGPT Images are expected to start generating fan-inspired videos with Disney’s multi-brand licensed characters in early 2026,” reads the press release.
Both OpenAI and Disney affirmed that they will maintain…
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