Disney hits Google with cease and desist alleging ‘massive’ copyright infringement

Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google on Wednesday, claiming the tech giant has infringed on its copyright, Variety exhibitions.

Disney is accusing the tech giant of copyright infringement on a “massive scale,” claiming it has used artificial intelligence 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 reproducing, rendering and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a massive scale,” the letter states. “And compounding Google’s flagrant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services bear Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney intellectual property is authorized and approved by Disney.”

The letter claims that Google’s AI systems are hacking characters from “Frozen,” “The Lion King,” “Moana,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Deadpool” and more.

Google did not confirm or deny Disney’s claims, but said it would “engage” with the company. “We have a long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI, and we’ve built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give websites and copyright holders control over their content,” a spokesperson said.

Disney’s move comes on the same day it signed a three-year, $1 billion deal with OpenAI that will bring its iconic characters to the company’s Sora AI video generator.